A war of words over Taiwan has broken out between former Australian prime minister Paul Keating and former US House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi, after the prominent Democrat accused Keating of making a “stupid statement” about the nation.
Keating was quick to hit back yesterday, saying in a statement that Pelosi had “very nearly” sparked a military confrontation between the US and China over her “indulgent” 2022 visit to Taiwan.
The dispute began after the Australian Broadcasting Corp (ABC) published an excerpt of an upcoming interview with Pelosi in which she rebuked Keating for describing Taiwan as “Chinese real estate.”
Photo: Screen grab from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Web site
“That’s ridiculous. It is not Chinese real estate and he should know that,” Pelosi told the ABC’s 7.30 program. “Taiwan is Taiwan and it is the people of Taiwan who have a democracy there. I think that that was a stupid statement.”
“I’ve no idea about Keating, but I think that it was a stupid statement to make, and I don’t know what his connection is to China that he would say such a thing. But it is really not in the security interest of the Asia-Pacific region for people to talk that way,” Pelosi said in the interview, which was aired in full yesterday evening.
Keating, who led Australia from 1991 to 1996 and has long said that Australia should not be drawn into a conflict over the future status of Taiwan, hit back at Pelosi and the ABC.
Keating’s statement focused on Pelosi’s remark that “it is not in the security interest of the Asia-Pacific region for people to talk that way.”
“This is from the former leader of the US House of Representatives who, in a recklessly indulgent visit to Taiwan in 2022, very nearly brought the United States and China to a military confrontation — for the first time since the Second World War,” Keating said. “In fact, Pelosi had to be warned by her president, Joe Biden, and with him, the Pentagon, of the military risks of her visit.”
Pelosi led a delegation to Taiwan in August 2022 to show support for Taiwan. It was the first visit to Taiwan by a speaker of the US House of Representatives in a quarter of a century.
Pelosi defended her trip by saying that the Chinese Communist Party “cannot prevent world leaders or anyone from traveling to Taiwan to pay respect to its flourishing democracy, to highlight its many successes and to reaffirm our commitment to continued collaboration.”
Beijing responded with four days of military drills, for the first time including test launches of ballistic missiles over Taipei.
Keating also said that the ABC had not presented Pelosi with the full picture of his stance.
“Obviously, in being asked a truncated question by 7.30, Nancy Pelosi would have been unaware that I had also said that Taiwan ‘will get resolved socially and politically over time,’ ie, between the two parties, without the need of confrontation or violence,” Keating said.
Keating said that he was representing “the national interests of Australia, not the national interests of the United States nor indeed, the interests of Taiwan.”
“The whole world recognizes as one country, China and Taiwan,” he said.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
RSS