US media reported that former US vice president Mike Pence arrived in Taiwan yesterday, where he is to meet with President William Lai (賴清德) and Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴).
Pence met with tech leaders this morning, and is to attend other events later in the day in Taipei, including a dinner reception at Taipei Guest House, The Hill reported today.
He was previously in Hong Kong to attend a business forum.
Photo: AFP
The news outlet cited a source familiar with the matter as saying that Pence decided to add the stop in Taipei to “see for himself.”
Pence also wants to remind Taiwanese that the US is an ally that “won’t allow what’s happened to Hong Kong to happen to Taiwan,” it added.
A spokesperson for Advancing American Freedom, Pence’s advocacy group, did not respond to The Hill’s request for comment.
In August last year, Pence wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post that warned of a “new and troubling strain of isolationism” in the US Republican Party “that advocates turning our backs on Taiwan and other allies.”
Since leaving office in 2021, he has been active in calling for the US to remain engaged internationally, and has traveled to places including Ukraine and Israel.
‘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
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
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
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
RSS