Minister Without Portfolio John Deng (鄧振中) and US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (戴琪) discussed opportunities to deepen economic ties in the same week China’s top diplomat warned Washington that it is heading down the “wrong road” with its support for Taiwan.
Deng and Tai “discussed opportunities to deepen the economic relationship, advance mutual trade priorities based on shared values, and promote innovation and inclusive economic growth for their workers and businesses,” the Office of the US Trade Representative said in an e-mailed statement on Friday.
They met in Bangkok yesterday on the sidelines of a gathering of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade ministers.
Photo: CNA
The pair “directed their teams to explore concrete ways to deepen the US-Taiwan trade and investment relationship, and to meet again in the coming weeks to discuss the path forward,” the US statement said.
They had previously met virtually at least twice, including last month, since Tai became the trade representative in March last year.
The meeting comes as US President Joe Biden is on a five-day trip to Asia, where he is seeking to increase engagement with regional allies to face the economic and security challenges posed by China.
Earlier this week, more than 50 US senators wrote to Biden urging him to include Taiwan as a partner in the proposed Indo-Pacific Economic Framework that his administration plans to roll out during the trip.
The Taiwanese delegation restated Taipei’s long-held goal of signing a free-trade agreement with the US, Deng said in a telephone interview.
“The meeting showed the US has a strong commitment to finding a path forward in a very concrete way to developing our economic ties together,” he said, describing the meeting as “very positive.”
Fourteen Chinese military aircraft on Friday flew into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone, the Ministry of National Defense said on its Web site.
Beijing frequently uses such activity to signal its displeasure with official interactions between Taiwan and the US.
The US has stepped up its backing for Taiwan since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, with a group of senior senators, including US Senator Lindsey Graham, visiting last month.
China responded to that trip by conducting air and naval training near Taiwan.
Figures on both sides of the Pacific have raised the possibility of allowing Taiwan to join the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, the Biden administration’s key initiative to counter China’s influence in Asia.
The two sides did not touch upon the framework during yesterday’s meeting, as the US trade office is not yet authorized to discuss Taiwan’s participation, Deng said.
In a telephone call with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan this week, Chinese Central Foreign Affairs Commission Director Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪), Beijing’s top diplomat, said that if the US “insists on playing the Taiwan card, and goes further and further down the wrong road, it will certainly lead the situation to a dangerous point.”
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
RSS