Taiwan's leader has 'faith' the US will defend it as she confirms US soldiers are training Taiwanese forces on the island
Tsai Ing-wen has confirmed a US military presence in Taiwan.(Office of the Taiwanese President)
Taiwan's President says she has "faith" the United States would defend the island against a Chinese attack.
In an interview with CNN, Tsai Ing-wen also confirmed for the first time that US troops were training Taiwanese forces on the island.
She wouldn't confirm how many US soldiers were in Taiwan.
"Not as many as people thought," she told CNN.
When asked if the country was safer now than when she first came to office in 2016, Ms When said the threat from China was "increasing every day".
The comments from Ms Tsai came after US President Joe Biden rebuked Beijing over its actions near Taiwan at a virtual ASEAN summit attended by China's Premier.
The two world powers have already faced off over Taiwan's involvement with the United Nations.
Washington has said Taiwan should be better integrated into the world body for "pragmatic" purposes, while Beijing has said it has no right to join.
The latest statements by Beijing, Washington and Taipei add to an escalation of diplomatic rhetoric and military posturing over the self-governing island of 23 million people.
China considers Taiwan — where nationalist forces fled in 1949 after losing a civil war to the communists — to be a province awaiting reunification.
When asked if she was confident the US would help defend Taiwan if necessary against China, Ms Tsai replied: "I do have faith."
She highlighted the "wide range of cooperation with the US aiming at increasing our defence capability," including the US military training of Taiwanese forces.
Tsai ready to meet with Xi Jinping
Taiwan's President says she has "faith" the United States would defend the island against a Chinese attack.
In an interview with CNN, Tsai Ing-wen also confirmed for the first time that US troops were training Taiwanese forces on the island.
She wouldn't confirm how many US soldiers were in Taiwan.
"Not as many as people thought," she told CNN.
When asked if the country was safer now than when she first came to office in 2016, Ms When said the threat from China was "increasing every day".
The comments from Ms Tsai came after US President Joe Biden rebuked Beijing over its actions near Taiwan at a virtual ASEAN summit attended by China's Premier.
The two world powers have already faced off over Taiwan's involvement with the United Nations.
Washington has said Taiwan should be better integrated into the world body for "pragmatic" purposes, while Beijing has said it has no right to join.
The latest statements by Beijing, Washington and Taipei add to an escalation of diplomatic rhetoric and military posturing over the self-governing island of 23 million people.
China considers Taiwan — where nationalist forces fled in 1949 after losing a civil war to the communists — to be a province awaiting reunification.
When asked if she was confident the US would help defend Taiwan if necessary against China, Ms Tsai replied: "I do have faith."
She highlighted the "wide range of cooperation with the US aiming at increasing our defence capability," including the US military training of Taiwanese forces.
Tsai ready to meet with Xi Jinping
China views Taiwan as its territory.(ABC News: GFX/Jarrod Fankhauser)
China has been flexing its muscles this year by sending increasing numbers of warplanes into Taiwan's Air Defence Identification Zone.
At the ASEAN summit, attended by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Mr Biden said the United States was "deeply concerned by China's coercive and proactive actions … across the Taiwan Strait".
Mr Biden last week told a televised forum the United States was ready to defend Taiwan from any Chinese invasion.Such actions "threaten regional peace and stability," Mr Biden told the closed-door session, according to a recording of his remarks obtained by the AFP news wire.
Those comments were quickly walked back by the White House amid warnings from Beijing, continuing a strategy of ambiguity on whether it would intervene militarily if China attacked.
Ms Tsai told CNN that despite China's aggressive posturing, she would be willing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in order to "reduce misunderstanding" and address the differences in their political systems.
"We can sit down and talk about our differences, and try to make arrangements so that we will be able to coexist peacefully," she said.
"More communication would be helpful."
China has been flexing its muscles this year by sending increasing numbers of warplanes into Taiwan's Air Defence Identification Zone.
At the ASEAN summit, attended by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, Mr Biden said the United States was "deeply concerned by China's coercive and proactive actions … across the Taiwan Strait".
Mr Biden last week told a televised forum the United States was ready to defend Taiwan from any Chinese invasion.Such actions "threaten regional peace and stability," Mr Biden told the closed-door session, according to a recording of his remarks obtained by the AFP news wire.
Those comments were quickly walked back by the White House amid warnings from Beijing, continuing a strategy of ambiguity on whether it would intervene militarily if China attacked.
Ms Tsai told CNN that despite China's aggressive posturing, she would be willing to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in order to "reduce misunderstanding" and address the differences in their political systems.
"We can sit down and talk about our differences, and try to make arrangements so that we will be able to coexist peacefully," she said.
"More communication would be helpful."
A small training contingent of Yanks Special Forces are on Taiwan soil at the invitation of the Taiwan Government.
ReplyDelete3rd party Foreigners should butt out of interfering with Taiwan self-defence.
Can Penang state govt invites a small training contingent of Israeli Special Forces on his soil to train the state police?
DeleteWakakakakaka…
Another fart leaks from that orifice down below!
What’s the issue. Even the Little Red Dot don’t give face to 5000 yo Bully, their soldiers have been training in the Republic of CHINA for decades.
ReplyDeleteKnown as Starlight, at its peak thousands of Singaporean soldiers trained in ROC.
QUOTE
DeleteSingapore military training exercises in Taiwan will continue: report
October 5, 2017
Singapore has reportedly assured Taiwan that a decades-long military agreement between both sides will remain, according to a South China Morning Post (SCMP) report.
“[Singapore said] everything would be the same as usual,” said Taiwan’s Foreign Minister David Lee in response to a question during a legislative session on Monday (2 October).
Opposition lawmaker Johnny Chiang had asked whether a visit by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to Beijing in September might affect Project Starlight. The Taiwanese minister said that Singaporeans officials had visited him after PM Lee’s Beijing trip and told him there would be no change to the military arrangement.
Starlight is an agreement signed in 1975 between then-Taiwanese leader Chiang Ching-kuo and the Singapore’s first PM Lee Kuan Yew, which allows Singaporean troops to train in Taiwan. According to the SCMP report, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) maintains at least three bases in Taiwan.
UNQUOTE
Have that 'Starlight' still in existence?
DeleteWakakakaka…
When those RedDot armour personal carriers were detained in HK, LSL shitted in his pant to try getting them back!
On the part of China, I believe the strategy will be to disrupt Raiwan's economy with regular flight incursions and later maybe sea incursions too.
ReplyDeleteOnce the aircraft carriers (I believe China planned to build 4 within the next 10 years) are ready, it will be the time to prepare to forcibly unite Taiwan to China.
I doubt if China will wait for Taiwan to voluntarily "return" to the motherland. Thus, the longer China waits, the more estranged the later Taiwanese generations will be towards China.
On the part of the USA, I agree with LKY the USA will be unlikely to go to war with China over Taiwan. Perhaps the USA will limit its participation with supplying weapons and provide economic aid.
In any case, China will not be easy to beat especially if USA were to fight thousands of kilometres away.
So complicated!
DeleteJust stopped EFCA completely.
The economy of that f*cked island would turn southwards that no amount of the tsmc chip earning would help it floats AGAIN!
Taiwan is not a member of the UN. 99% of humanity do not recognize Taiwanese sovereignty. That's the official position of the UN. This has been the status quo for the last 50 years, ever since China ascended the UN.
ReplyDeleteChina has always talk about peace and studiously avoids confrontation or war but if the enemy turns up at the gate or Taiwan secedes, China will respond to the crossing of the red lines. DPP leaders in Taiwan keeps on talking about war, about being 'attacked' but Mainland China doesn't want to go to war and see no urgency to use force for reunification BUT it is not afraid to go to war if ONE CHINA is abandoned.
China can make short work of Taiwan's air defence, power generation and refineries, WITHOUT risking its air, naval or land assets. To put it bluntly, China can keep Taiwan beyond arm's length and punch its light out. A survey was done which revealed that majority Taiwanese reservists won't fight if there's an actual war, they will make a run for the hill. So all this so-called 'training' by some US soldiers are just an eyewash.
Joe Biden said on Oct 21 that the US will defend Taiwan from "Chinese invasion". This is the routine mouthing from an American president, haha...it is almost comical. All his predecessors had been mouthing this mantra for years now. This is the AmeriKKKan way of keeping the Taiwan situation alive, to needle and prod China to make a mistake and escalate it into a war.
The US is very good at this sort of gameplay....playing both sides to rip maximum profits. Flip position to sell outdated overpriced arms to Taiwan. Flop position when bargaining with China to seek concessions. Divide and conquer strategy seems to work all the time. Only a united Chinese can stop this exploitations.
Excerpt :
ReplyDelete" A vital piece of the history of Taiwan"
The Japs forcefully took Taiwan from China in 1895 and ruled it for 50 years until they lost WW2. Their long-time conspiracy is to incorporate Taiwan into the Japanese Empire.
Now they are using the Taiwan DPP ( Democratic Progressive Party ) which is controlled by the descendants of those Japanese soldiers left behind in Taiwan in 1945 as a vehicle to take over Taiwan through subterfuge.
In 1875, after China lost the Sino-Japanese war, Japan took away from China the Chinese Liu-Chiu Island Archipelago. In 1879, Japan integrated the Liu-Chiu Islands into the Japanese Empire and renamed it Okinawa.
During the Second World War, Japan overran South East Asia. It took from China Diao-Yu Dao ( renamed Senkaku by Japan, the Penghu or Pescadores Island, the Paracel and Spratly islands in the South China Sea.
In 1943 in the Cairo Declaration and again two years later, in the 1945
Potsdam Talks, the US, UK and ROC jointly declared that Japan should return to China all the former Chinese territories that Japan took from China. So after the defeat of Japan in 1945, Japan had to hand back to China the islands of Taiwan, the Penghu or Pescadores, Diao-Yu Dao, or Senkaku Islands, the Paracel and Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
The return of these islands to China was officially ratified and signed by 48 members of the United Nations Organisation under the 1951 San Francisco Peace Treaty.
In the San Francisco Treaty of 1951, the Republic of China ( ROC) under Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang (KMT) was negligent and overlooked two important aspects : the return of Liu-Chiu Dao or Okinawa to China which was not mentioned in the San Francisco Treaty; and the repatriation of the former Japanese soldiers back to Japan.
The United States purposely kept Liu-Chiu Dao out of the Treaty because it had ill-intention to occupy as its military base for future aggressions in Asia itself. ( Note : indeed this island now known as Okinawa is a US military base in Japan).
(continue...)
Recently a world renowned 1957 Nobel Prize winner Chinese nuclear physicist, Professor Yang Zhen-ning shared with the Chinese his concern about Japan's evil design objective in taking small steps to eventually integrate Taiwan with the Japanese Empire again in the future, just in the same way they annexed Liu-Chiu Dao to Japan in 1879.
ReplyDeleteProfessor Yang Zhen-Ning is 100 years old this year in 2021. He is still actively contributing to China's Science and Physics as Professor in Beijing's famous Xinhua University. He is greatly honoured and respected by Chinese leaders from Chairman Mao, Premier Zhou En-lai to President Xi Jinping, as well as loved by the Chinese people.
Professor Yang had written a long narrative about the Japanese diabolical plan. Here I will try to share with the Chinese people and the world in a more concise form of Professor Yang's long narrative.
He questioned : " Do you think it is the Taiwanese Chinese who are rioting for Taiwan independence ? You are really wrong. Taiwan's independence is actually a century-old conspiracy of the Japanese. Taiwanese society is exceedingly complex. This will provide very valuable historical data for mainland China to unify Taiwan and formulate correct policies in the future"
In 1945, when the Japanese military government surrendered, it did not repatriate to Japan all the Japanese soldiers stationed in Taiwan. Over 300,000 ( Three Hundred Thousand ) Japanese soldiers left in Taiwan took off their military uniforms after Japan surrendered and became naturalized Chinese citizens with assumed Chinese names.
Therefore there are now about 4 million Japanese descendants with assumed Chinese names living in Taiwan whose loyalty is still with the Japanese emperor. Among them were Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian, and also the present leader Tsai Ing-wen, who have no Chinese blood at all but are all of Japanese ancestry. Their ultimate goal is not Taiwan independence, but the integration of Taiwan into Japan. Taiwan's independence is just their transition and springboard for their ultimate objective. The day when China is forced to liberate Taiwan, these Japanese descendants would fight the PLA to the end.
[ Note : Former Taiwan President Lee Teng-hui was shown liking all things Japanese and he dresses in Japanese style clothing most time and when in Japan, he will go give homage and pray at the infamous Yasukuni Shrine where they buried those Japanese war criminals ]
(continue...)
Professor Yang said : " I have never understood why there are radical pro-Japaneses elements in Taiwan. Many so-called Taiwan independence scholars of Japanese descent resisted the fine-tuning of high school history books that reflects the Japanese invasion of Taiwan. They also wanted to eliminate sinicization, Taiwanization and preserve some form of Japanese imperiousness. These radical pro-Japanese elements have no one to investigate their background. In Taiwan, they are obsessed with loyalty to Japan. Embracing Japan certainly has the characteristics of another nation. It seems they are playing politics and promoting Taiwan independence. No one thinks they are Japanese at all.
ReplyDeleteThis is not nonsense. It is not tagging as there are historical facts that can be tested like the household registration office should be verifiable, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Interior should have official documents to check when the government accepts it."
This group of people did not dare to act rashly under the rule of Chiang Kai-shek government in the early days when the government moved to Taiwan. But after Lee Teng-hui and Chen Shui-bian came to power, they sprang up in political, academic and commercial industries. Up to now, they are even more arrogant and they dare say : China men and women go back to China.
"Chinese Taiwanese are now pushed aside, short changed and marginalized. We Chinese can no longer remain silent and the whole Chinese people should rise up and clear the door for the Japanese traitors camouflaging as Chinese to be flushed out and expelled and send back to Japan."
It has just been 70 odd years since the Chinese recovered Taiwan. The household registration data should be clearly recorded. The change of names can be checked. Anyone who has caused trouble shall be investigated and dealt with according to the law or repatriated to Japan in order to remove the black sheep."
All Chinese compatriots throughout the world must rise up with one voice to condemn the anti-China warmonger Japanese devils and the savage Anglo-Saxon monster, the evil United States.
We Chinese people must never allow the Japanese to occupy Taiwan through subterfuge of their treacherous and treasonous descendants.
End.