The US Navy yesterday said that one of its P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol and reconnaissance aircraft transited the Taiwan Strait, as the White House mulls linking aid to Taiwan with that for Israel and Ukraine.
“By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations,” the US Navy said in a statement.
The transit demonstrates the US’ commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific, it added.
Photo: AFP
The Ministry of National Defense said the US aircraft had flown north through the Taiwan Strait and stuck to the median line.
Taiwan’s forces kept watch and the situation was “as normal,” it added.
China’s military described the flight as “public hype,” adding that it had sent fighters to monitor and warn the US plane.
In a statement, it said it “remains on high alert at all times to resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and regional peace and stability.”
The US last announced a Poseidon mission through the Strait in July.
Meanwhile, an unnamed US official said that the White House has been weighing whether to make a request to the US Congress that would lump funding for Israel with that of Taiwan and Ukraine to improve the chances of gaining passage of assistance for Ukraine’s fight to repel Russian invaders.
Some US Republican lawmakers on Wednesday said they would resist any funding request from US President Joe Biden that combined military aid for Israel and Ukraine, amid resistance from some Republicans to further assistance for Kyiv.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters at a news briefing on Wednesday that parameters for the administration’s additional funding request to Congress had not been finalized.
Separately, US Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Indo-Pacific Security Affairs Jedidiah Royal said he was “very confident” that the US could manage multiple contingencies, in response to concerns about thinning resources if a conflict were to also break out in the Taiwan Strait.
The US would be able through its force posture and resource management to manage any number of possibilities, he told the Global Taiwan Institute’s annual symposium in Washington on Wednesday.
“I would encourage you to fully take on board how much work and energy we’re putting into making sure we’re prepared for every situation,” Royal said.
“If the United States does engage itself, I can assure you that we will be victorious in that regard,” he said.
Conflict in the Taiwan Strait of any kind is “neither imminent nor inevitable,” but Washington wants to make sure it is taking the possibility seriously and preparing “across the board,” he added.
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