Support for Taiwan in the US is a consensus across party lines and administrations, and the US has repeatedly emphasized the importance of Taiwan, showing that peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait is a global consensus, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday.
“I know the people very well, respect them greatly. They did take about 100 percent of our chip business. I think Taiwan should pay us for defense,” former US president and presidential candidate Donald Trump said in a Blomberg interview on Tuesday.
Department of North American Affairs Deputy Director Chiao Kuo-you (焦國祐) said the ministry does not comment on the speeches of US presidential candidates, adding that US Department of State spokesman Matthew Miller, US House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, Congressional Taiwan Caucus cochair Mario Diaz-Balart, and former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien Jr have all made statements emphasizing the importance of Taiwan and US-Taiwan relations.
Photo: CNA
The US has been working with like-minded countries to make peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait not just a US-Taiwan consensus, but also an international one, Chiao said.
He said that Taiwan would work with like-minded countries and step up national defense capabilities to jointly uphold regional peace and stability, he said.
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Lin Yi-chun (林憶君) said that Taiwan’s national defense spending was higher than the average member country of NATO, and its defense capabilities did not lag that far behind most advanced countries.
The US is the greatest benefactor from the current international order, and maintaining such a world order, regardless of who is elected to office, would require the US to work together with its regional allies, which includes Taiwan, Lin said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said Taiwan has to be self-reliant, adding that it was a mistake to be 100 percent reliant on the US.
O’Brien told Bloomberg that “the Taiwanese have to want their freedom and independence as much as we want it for them.”
“I can’t care more about Taiwan, to send my daughters to defend Taiwan, if the Taiwanese themselves wouldn’t defend Taiwan. And so we need to see the will of the Taiwanese people,” he said, adding, “They need to step up to the plate.”
O’Brien has two daughters who are serving in the US armed forces.
Council on Foreign Relations fellow for Asia studies David Sacks said: “If I was in Taiwan, I would take this statement seriously because it is not an isolated remark — there is now a pattern.”
“This statement, in particular, epitomizes Trumpism because it reflects his purely transactional view of foreign policy,” he added.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai