Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said Wednesday evening it had tracked the China’s Shandong aircraft carrier passing through the Bashi Strait, to Taiwan’s southeast. There was no sign of a large-scale military response as of Thursday morning as China had done previously.Ĭhinese vessels were engaged in a joint patrol and inspection operation in the Taiwan Strait that will last three days, state media said Thursday morning. Tsai said she stressed to lawmakers Taiwan’s commitment “to defending the peaceful status quo where the people in Taiwan may continue to thrive in a free and open society.” commitment to Taiwan’s defense if China should attack. They made no mention of calls from hard-liners in and out of Congress for a greater U.S. More than a dozen Democratic and Republican lawmakers, including the House’s third-ranking Democrat, joined Republican McCarthy for the daylong talks.ĭuring a private session they spoke of the importance of Taiwan’s self-defense, of fostering robust trade and economic ties and supporting the island government’s ability to participate in the international community, Tsai said. ![]() and Taiwanese officials is a challenge to China’s claim of sovereignty over the island. Still, the formal trappings of the meeting, and the senior rank of some of the elected officials in the delegation from Congress, threatened to run afoul of China’s position that any interaction between U.S. Taiwan trade chief warns against 'unnecessary fear' of China He said U.S.-Taiwan ties are stronger than at any other point in his life. McCarthy evoked Reagan’s peace-through-strength approach to foreign relations and emphasized “this is a bipartisan meeting of members of Congress,” not any one political party. “America’s support for the people of Taiwan will remain resolute, unwavering and bipartisan,” McCarthy said at a news conference later. Instead, the two leaders stood side by side in a show of unity at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California, acknowledging China’s threats against the island government but speaking only of maintaining longstanding U.S. for a more confrontational stance toward China in defense of self-ruled Taiwan. Speaking carefully to avoid unnecessarily escalating tensions with Beijing, Tsai and McCarthy steered clear of calls from hard-liners in the U.S. support at a rare high-level, bipartisan meeting on U.S. (AP) - Risking China’s anger, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy hosted Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen on Wednesday as a “great friend of America” in a fraught show of U.S.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |