US President Joe Biden’s engagements with regional leaders during his trip to Asia could yield positive political overtones for Taiwan, observers in the US said on Thursday.
There could be serious conversations on what Japan and the US might do to “deter aggression against Taiwan,” said Shelia Smith, a senior fellow for Asia-Pacific studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, a New York-based think tank.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who has framed the Russian invasion of Ukraine as a challenge to global order that affects the Indo-Pacific region, would certainly want to continue to coordinate with the US on how to respond to a potential Taiwan crisis, Smith told a forum to preview Biden’s trip, which began in South Korea on Friday.
Photo: AFP
References to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, and concerns over China’s behavior can be expected in a joint statement issued by Biden and Kishida, Smith said.
Biden met with South Korean President Yoon Seok-youl, with the focus of their talks expected to be on North Korea.
Biden is to travel to Tokyo to meet Kishida and attend a summit on Tuesday of Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) leaders, an alliance of the US, Japan, India and Australia.
The emphasis is likely to be on China at the Quad meeting, observers said.
Manjari Chatterjee Miller, a senior fellow for India, Pakistan and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations, told the forum that she expects the top agenda item at the Quad summit to be the specter of China as a strategic threat to open societies and democracies.
“It would also be a demonstration that there would be the similar kind of resolve in Asia on Taiwan as there has been in Europe on Ukraine,” Miller said. “I think that’s something that the Biden administration would hope to solidify with this meeting.”
However, Miller said she does not expect a Quad statement that explicitly mentions China, partly because India would not be part of the Quad if it were an explicitly anti-China alliance.
Nonetheless, the way Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, characterized the trip — that it is meant for open societies and democracies to get together — has made it clear there would be regional support for Taiwan were China to invade, she said.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS