It is China’s “priority” to stop Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, from visiting the US next month, China’s ambassador in Washington said on Wednesday, as Beijing steps up its warnings against the trip.
In most opinion polls Lai is the front-runner of the presidential election, which is to be held in January.
Lai is making what are officially stopovers in the US on his way to and from Paraguay for the inauguration of its new president on Aug. 15, and it is drawing anger from Beijing which calls Lai “a separatist.”
Photo: Xinhua via AP
Chinese ambassador Xie Feng (謝鋒) told the Aspen Security Forum that “Taiwan is China’s Taiwan” and that the country wanted a peaceful “reunification,” but Taiwanese “separatists” were advancing their agenda, seeking US support.
“They even do not admit they are Chinese. So this is a very dangerous path they are taking,” Xie said.
“Provocative” moves by Taiwan “separatists” should be contained, he said. “Now the priority for us is to stop William Lai Ching-te from visiting the US, which is like a grey rhino charging at us.”
A “grey rhino” event refers to a highly obvious yet ignored threat.
Defense ministry said that on Thursday it had detected 22 Chinese warplanes around Taiwan, some of which crossed the sensitive median line of the Taiwan Strait, while seven Chinese warships carried out “combat readiness patrols.”
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and the government have repeatedly offered talks with China but been rejected, as Beijing views them as separatists. Both President Tsai and Vice President Lai say only Taiwan’s people can decide their future.
American Institute in Taiwan Director Sandra Oudkirk said on Wednesday that there was no reason for China to take “provocative” action in response to Lai’s stopovers in the US, and that such transits have happened for many years and are routine.
In August last year and then again in April this year, China staged large-scale war games around Taiwan, as responses to a visit to Taiwan of then-US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Tsai in April meeting US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy in Los Angeles, while she was transiting back from a visit to Central America.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS