De facto embassy opening in Vilnius defies pressure from Beijing
Taiwan has opened a de facto embassy in Lithuania in a diplomatic breakthrough for the island, brushing aside Beijing’s strong opposition to the move which again expressed its anger and warned of consequences.
Taipei announced on Thursday it had formally opened an office in Lithuania using the name Taiwan, a significant diplomatic departure that defied a pressure campaign by Beijing.
Continue reading...From railway signs to perfume bottles to Taiwan’s official passport stamp, the artist is giving ancient lettering a modern twist. How will her work go down at Hong Kong’s controversial new M+ gallery?
The most striking thing about Tong Yang-tze, sitting inside her modest Taipei studio residence, is her confidence, and the sense that she’s had it all along. Now in her late 70s and considered one of Taiwan’s foremost calligraphers and artists, Tong grins and jokes over cups of green tea and local sweets, belying her fame and cultural significance. “Of course I’m good!” she laughs at one point, recalling an offer early in her career from her former university to teach. “I said no, I don’t want a teaching job. At that time, everybody needed a job but I wanted to be an artist. No regrets.”
Last week Tong’s calligraphy with a modern art twist greeted visitors to the hotly anticipated M+ museum in Hong Kong, an ambitious decade-long project to create what has been dubbed Asia’s Tate Modern. The 33-gallery space, in a harbourside building designed by “starchitects” Herzog & de Meuron in collaboration with TFP Farrells and Arup, opened last week.
Continue reading...Analysis: while depth of division remains clear, leaders showed willingness to move in positive direction
The much-awaited meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping achieved its admittedly low expectations when the two finally met and showed a willingness to move the bilateral relationship in a positive direction.
Progress began to show soon after the meeting, for example on journalist visas. But the two sides also provided a list of existing grievances following the three-and-a-half-hour talks. The US said it raised its concerns over China’s human rights record, its “unfair trade and economic practices”, and its behaviour in the South China Sea.
Continue reading...Chinese leader urges countries in region to work together amid growing pressure from US over Taiwan
Xi Jinping has warned against a return to cold war-era tensions in the Asia-Pacific, urging greater cooperation on pandemic recovery and the climate crisis.
Amid growing tensions with the US over Taiwan, the Chinese president said all countries in the region must work together on joint challenges.
Continue reading...China’s aggression destabilises the region and threatens democratic freedoms, Taipei says
Taiwan has hit back at the former Australian prime minister Paul Keating after he said Taiwan was “not a vital Australian interest” and labelled it a “civil matter” for China.
In an appearance at the National Press Club on Wednesday, Keating dismissed global concerns about China’s aggression towards Taiwan and criticised Australia’s growing bipartisan pushback.
Continue reading...Beijing must not be let off hook over human rights abuses in return for climate cooperation, say legislators
Legislators from around the world have gathered on the fringes of the G20 summit in Rome to protest against the presence of the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, and urge leaders not to let China off the hook over human rights abuses in return for Beijing’s cooperation on the climate crisis.
Many of those at the Rome counter-meeting have been banned from travelling to China as punishment for campaigning against Chinese repression in Xinjiang.
Continue reading...Beijing furious at US call for island to have ‘meaningful participation’ in international body
China has said Taiwan has no right to join the United Nations, after the US increased tensions with a call for the democratic island to have greater involvement in the world body.
In a statement marking 50 years since the UN general assembly voted to seat Beijing and boot out Taipei, the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, said on Tuesday he regretted that Taiwan had been increasingly excluded on the world stage.
Continue reading...Trade minister Dan Tehan sees ‘real opportunities’ to help Taiwan, as he hopes relationship with China has not become permanently adversarial
The Australian government says it wants to help Taiwan decarbonise its economy, flagging this as the next area of cooperation with the democratically ruled island, amid ongoing tensions with China.
The trade minister, Dan Tehan, said he saw “real opportunities” to deepen energy ties with Taiwan, while arguing there was bipartisan recognition in Australia of “the greater assertiveness that we’re seeing from China”.
Continue reading...Administration insists there is no change of policy after president says US has ‘a commitment’ to defend island
China has urged the US to “avoid sending any wrong signals” after President Joe Biden for a second time in three months said the US would come to Taiwan’s defence if it was attacked.
In both incidents, the White House has clarified that there has been no change in US policy, which officially maintains so-called “strategic ambiguity” regarding Taiwan. Still, Biden’s words will rattle Beijing.
Continue reading...On the streets of Taipei, Beijing’s rhetoric is a hot topic but people are focused on a peaceful future
In a small urban park on Yong Kang Jie, Taipei’s famous eat street, an elderly woman leans across the frame of her friend’s parked bicycle and shouts. “Taiwan is an independent country!”
It’s a quiet autumn morning. Children play on a nearby slide, and a young mother enjoys a takeaway bento box.
Continue reading...Nicholas Burns calls Beijing an ‘aggressor’ and that US responsibility is ‘to make Taiwan a tough nut to crack’
US president Joe Biden’s nominee to be ambassador to Beijing on Wednesday said China was aggressive and untrustworthy, insisting that boosting Taiwan’s defences against the threat of Chinese invasion should be a US priority.
Speaking to the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, which is due to confirm his appointment, Nicholas Burns denounced recent Chinese warplane incursions into Taiwan’s air defence zone, calling them “especially objectionable”.
Continue reading...Unlike the Soviet Union, China is an economic, technological and military challenger to the US. That raises questions – especially for Taiwan
Whether China tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile that can circle the globe or not, there is a convincing argument that the country has emerged as a serious strategic rival to the United States. With scores of nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles, China already has the ability to strike the US mainland with devastating force. However, the hypersonic missile test – which the Chinese say was a peaceful spacecraft launch – can be read as a warning from Beijing that it could defeat, through its technological prowess, US missile defences.
What remains largely unacknowledged is that both Washington and Beijing have been building their strategic nuclear capabilities at a rapid and potentially destabilising pace. The US plans to spend up to $1.5tn to overhaul its nuclear arsenal by rebuilding each leg of its nuclear triad – with new warheads, submarines and bombers being commissioned. China is doing the same. While Monday’s test made headlines around the world, China’s first hypersonic glide test was in 2014. The US has its own plans for such technologies. The unavoidable impression is that such efforts contribute to a dangerous arms race.
Continue reading...Countries ‘colluded to provoke and stir up trouble’ in region that China claims as its territory
The Chinese military has condemned the United States and Canada for each sending a warship through the Taiwan Strait last week, saying they were threatening peace and stability in the region.
China claims democratically ruled Taiwan as its own territory, and has mounted repeated air force missions into Taiwan’s air defence identification zone (ADIZ) over the past year, provoking anger in Taipei.
Continue reading...A dramatic rise in the number of aerial sorties over the sea separating the Chinese mainland from Taiwan has served as a reminder that the strait has the potential to be one of the most dangerous places on Earth. A reported 149 incursions in four days by People’s Liberation Army planes into Taiwan's air defence zone have left the de-facto independent island on high alert as it warned that China could be capable of invading by 2025. As global leaders keep a close eye on the worsening relations in the region, Guardian correspondent Helen Davidson explains why and how tensions could escalate into war
Continue reading...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
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