Forty-one injured in ‘extremely fierce’ blaze at 13-storey building in city of Kaohsiung
At least 46 people have died and another 41 have been injured in a fire in southern Taiwan that engulfed a building overnight.
The 13-storey building caught fire at about 3am local time (2000 BST) on Thursday, officials in the city of Kaohsiung said. A fire department statement said the blaze was “extremely fierce” and destroyed many floors.
Continue reading...Tsai Ing-wen condemns China’s plans for Taiwan and says island will continue to build its defences
No one will force Taipei to take the path laid out by Beijing, Tsai Ing-wen has vowed on Taiwan’s national day, pledging to continue bolstering the island’s military defences.
Responding to repeated threats from China’s leaders that it will one day take Taiwan – by force if need be – and overthrow its democratically elected government, the president said Taiwan had the resolve to defend itself and its future, which “must be decided in accordance with the will of the Taiwanese people”.
Continue reading...Taiwan will keep bolstering its defences to ensure nobody can force the island to accept the path China has laid down that offers neither freedom nor democracy, President Tsai Ing-wen said on Sunday, in a strong riposte to Beijing. Claimed by China as its own territory, Taiwan has come under growing military and political pressure to accept Beijing's rule, including repeated Chinese air force missions in Taiwan's air defence identification zone, prompting international concern
Continue reading...Embassy in Canberra describes former Australian PM as ‘a failed and pitiful politician’ after he raised concerns that Beijing ‘could lash out disastrously’
China’s embassy in Canberra has denounced the former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott for what it called a “despicable and insane performance in Taiwan”.
On a visit to Taipei to address a regional forum last week, Abbott raised concerns that Beijing “could lash out disastrously very soon” amid growing tensions over the future of Taiwan – and argued the US and Australia could not stand idly by.
Continue reading...Taiwan reiterates it is a sovereign nation after Xi says its ‘separatism’ is biggest ‘danger to national rejuvenation’
China’s president, Xi Jinping, has vowed to realise “reunification” with Taiwan by peaceful means, after a week of heightened tensions in the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwan responded shortly after by calling on Beijing to abandon its “coercion”, reiterating that only Taiwan’s people could decide their future.
Continue reading...The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, said on Saturday that reunification with Taiwan must happen and that it would happen peacefully, despite a week of tensions. Xi spoke at an official celebration in Beijing's Great Hall of the People that focused largely on the ruling Communist party continuing to lead China as the country rises in power and influence
Continue reading...The former Australian prime minister uses a speech in Taipei to call on Beijing to ‘scale back the aggression’
The former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott has raised fears Beijing “could lash out disastrously very soon” amid growing tensions over the future of Taiwan – and argued the US and Australia could not stand idly by.
Delivering two high profile addresses to a regional forum in Taipei on Friday, Abbott dismissed claims that Australian officials were beating the “drums of war”, while calling on Beijing to “scale back the aggression”.
Continue reading...Small contingent of US special forces and marines training local forces in latest sign of rising US-China tensions
The US has been secretly maintaining a small contingent of military trainers in Taiwan for at least a year, according to a new report, the latest sign of the rising stakes in US-China rivalry.
About two dozen US special forces soldiers and an unspecified number of marines are now training Taiwanese forces, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The trainers were first sent to Taiwan by the Trump administration but their presence had not been reported until now.
Continue reading...Biden administration announces plan after meeting between US national security adviser and China’s top diplomat
The US president, Joe Biden, and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, are planning to meet by video link before the end of the year, a senior US official said on Wednesday.
There is an “agreement in principle” for the “virtual bilateral”, the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
Continue reading...Joe Biden says he has spoken to the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, about Taiwan and they have agreed to abide by the Taiwan agreement.
Beijing sent about 150 warplanes into Taiwan’s air defence zone over four days beginning on Friday, the same day China marked a key patriotic holiday, in a record escalation of its grey-zone military activity directed towards the island
Continue reading...Comments come as Biden and Xi agree to stick to Taiwan agreements amid rising tension in the Indo-Pacific
China will be capable of mounting a full scale invasion of Taiwan by 2025, the island’s defence minister Chiu Kuo-cheng has said, describing current tensions as the worst in 40 years.
Speaking to the China Times on Wednesday, Chiu said China was capable now, but would be completely prepared to launch an invasion in three years.
Continue reading...Taiwan needs to be on alert for China's 'over-the-top' military activities which are violating regional peace, Premier Su Tseng-chang has said after incursions by Chinese warplanes into Taiwan's air defence zone. China has sent nearly 150 planes into the zone in the first four days of October, in what mainland figures and media have labelled a demonstration of strength but which world governments have condemned as an act of intimidation
Continue reading...Former Australian prime minister, who has said China is ‘asserting itself aggressively’, will meet Taiwanese president and foreign minister
Australia’s former prime minister, Tony Abbott, has jetted into Taiwan to speak at a regional forum as tensions with China escalate following recent air incursions.
Abbott is in Taiwan to deliver a keynote speech at the Yushan forum – an Asian-regional dialogue conference organised by the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation.
Continue reading...Analysis: the fallout from a conflict triggered by miscalculation or accident could be catastrophic
A surge of Chinese aerial sorties over the sea separating mainland China and Taiwan has served as a reminder that the strait has the potential to be one of the most dangerous places on Earth.
According to Taiwan’s defence ministry, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) made a total of 149 sorties in four days over the southern section of the Taiwan Strait, including flights by a dozen bombers and many jet fighters.
Continue reading...Tsai Ing-wen says Taiwan will ‘do whatever it takes to defend itself’ against an increasingly assertive Beijing
Taiwan is committed to defending its democracy against an increasingly aggressive China, the island’s president has vowed, warning of “catastrophic consequences” for the region should it fall.
The comments from Tsai Ing-wen, in an essay published on Tuesday, came amid record-breaking incursions by Chinese warplanes into its air defence zone. On Tuesday Taiwan’s premier, Su Tseng-chang, said the “over the top” activity violated regional peace, and Taiwan needed to be on alert.
Continue reading...Canberra weighs into dispute saying it wants ‘an Indo-Pacific region that is secure, prosperous and based on the rule of law’
The Australian government has raised concerns about China’s increased incursions into Taiwan’s air defence zone and warned against “the threat or use of force”.
Taiwan has said Beijing sent nearly 150 fighter jets and bombers into its air defence zone over four consecutive days, prompting the US to describe the incursions as “provocative” and “destabilising”. Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, described the activity as “threatening”.
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Continue reading...Defence ministry says it detected at least 56 flights hours after US urged Beijing to cease ‘provocative’ activity
China sent a record number of military aircraft into Taiwan’s air defence zone on Monday, the fourth consecutive day of such air incursions by Beijing amid growing fears of further escalation.
Taiwan’s ministry of defence said it had detected at least 52 flights during daylight hours on Monday, including 36 fighter jets, 12 H-6 bombers, two transport aircraft and two surveillance aircraft. Late on Monday it reported another four fighter jets crossing into the zone after dark.
Continue reading...Taipei says 39 Chinese fighter jets crossed into its defence zone in two sorties, following a 38-plane incursion on Friday
China has for the second day in a row flown more than 30 military planes towards Taiwan in yet another record show of force.
Taiwan’s defence ministry said 39 aircraft entered Taiwan’s air defence identification zone in two sorties on Saturday, one during the day and one at night. That followed a similar pattern on Friday, when 38 planes flew into the area south of the self-governing island.
Continue reading...Taipei says Chinese jets and bombers crossed zone as Beijing marked the anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic
A record 38 Chinese military jets crossed into Taiwan’s defence zone as Beijing marked the founding of the People’s Republic of China, officials in Taipei have said.
The show of force on China’s national day on Friday near the self-ruled democratic island, which Beijing claims as part of its territory, came in the same week it accused Britain of sending a warship into the Taiwan strait with “evil intentions”.
Continue reading...The former PM calls on the Australian government to urge the US to rejoin the Trans-Pacific Partnership and backs the UK to join
The former Australian prime minister Tony Abbott says the government should not allow a fear of inflaming tensions with China get in the way of accepting Taiwan’s bid to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact.
Abbott also called on the Australian government to urge the US to “reconsider their aloofness from the TPP, which was originally their own idea”.
Continue reading...