The US Department of State on Thursday vowed to ensure timely delivery of arms sold to Taiwan, a promise echoed by a top US official at the legislature in Taipei yesterday.
On Wednesday, US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy told a news conference after his meeting with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library near Los Angeles that the US “must continue the arms sales to Taiwan and make sure such sales reach Taiwan on a very timely basis.”
US Representative Mike Gallagher, who chairs the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, told the same event that he would look for ways to get Harpoon anti-ship missiles to Taiwan ahead of those scheduled to go to Saudi Arabia.
Photo: Carlos Garcia Rawlins, Reuters
Asked about the statements at a separate news conference on Thursday, US Department of State spokesman Vedant Patel said that “the US government is actively reviewing our policies and processes to ensure that we move arm sales as quickly as possible, particularly for Taiwan.”
The US provides Taiwan with “defense articles and services necessary to enable and maintain a sufficient self-defense capability” in line with its Taiwan Relations Act, Patel said.
However, “I’m not going to just get ahead of any specific processes just yet,” he said.
Peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait are global interests, he said, calling on Beijing to “cease its military, diplomatic and economic pressure against Taiwan, and instead engage in meaningful diplomacy.”
In Taipei yesterday, US Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, told lawmakers that it is important to harden Taiwan by enhancing and reprioritizing sales of weapons to the nation.
Expediting the delivery of the weapons he has signed off on “is critically important,” as Taiwan is a high-risk area that is constantly threatened, McCaul told a news conference.
McCaul is leading a cross-party delegation on a three-day visit to Taiwan. The delegation is to meet with Tsai today after her scheduled return from the US yesterday.
Third-party sales are also an option, McCaul said, adding that “we are doing everything in our power to exercise this” delivery to provide deterrence for Taiwan and promote peace in the region.
The House Committee on Foreign Affairs last year passed the Arms Exports Delivery Solutions Act, requiring the US state and defense departments to report to the US Congress on transfers of defense articles and services, including approved transfers to Taiwan.
The committee is to uncover reasons for any delivery delays and “will expedite ways to provide the arms that Taiwan needs to defend yourself,” US Representative Young Kim, who introduced the act with McCaul, said at the legislature.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS