Category Archives: Taiwan

China renews threats as Taiwan president greeted by crowds in New York

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Tsai Ing-wen’s trip causing controversy in China, with the government labelling it a ‘provocation’

Chinese officials have warned of “serious” consequences if Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, meets the US House speaker next week, after Tsai arrived in New York to crowds of supporters and protesters.

Tsai is stopping in the US twice during her 10-day visit to Taiwan’s diplomatic allies Guatemala and Belize. Her itinerary has not been disclosed and none of the events were open to the public or media.

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China warns of retaliation if Taiwan’s president meets US House speaker

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Beijing has urged the US not to allow Tsai Ing-wen to transit through the US, saying it would be a ‘provocation’

The Chinese government has threatened retaliation if Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, meets the US House speaker this week, and urged the US not to let her transit through the country, saying it would be a “provocation”.

Tsai left Taiwan on Wednesday afternoon for a 10-day trip to visit Central American allies, Belize and Guatemala. The trip includes two stopovers, in New York on the way in, and Los Angeles on the way out. Tsai is expected to meet with the speaker, Kevin McCarthy in California, but there hasn’t been official confirmation.

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Taiwan caught between superpowers as rival leaders visit China and US

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Ma Ying-jeou’s ‘we are all Chinese’ message starkly at odds with vision of Tsai Ing-wen, who seeks support from Washington

Taiwan’s former president Ma Ying-jeou stood in front of the Sun Yat-sen mausoleum in Nanjing on Tuesday and called for people on both sides of the Taiwan strait to work together for peace, because, he said: “We are all Chinese.”

The 73-year-old is in China on a historic visit, the first by a current or former Taiwanese president since 1949. In the decades since, tensions have increased as Beijing vows to annex Taiwan under what it calls “reunification”. Taiwan’s government and people have become increasingly opposed to the prospect of Chinese rule, and few identify themselves as Chinese.

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Honduras says there is ‘only one China’ as it officially cuts ties with Taiwan

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Honduras becomes the ninth diplomatic ally that Taipei has lost to Beijing since pro-independence president Tsai Ing-wen first took office

Honduras has cut diplomatic ties with Taiwan, the Latin American country announced on Saturday, saying it recognises “only one China in the world”.

Honduras is the ninth diplomatic ally that Taipei has lost to Beijing since pro-independence president Tsai Ing-wen first took office in May 2016. The move leaves Taiwan recognised by only 13 sovereign states.

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Ukraine war has ‘profound impact’ on Asia, Blinken says, with eye on China’s ambitions

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Beijing is watching ‘very carefully’ how world responds to Russian aggression, says US secretary of state

US secretary of state Antony Blinken has warned that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has a “profound impact” on Asia, saying that China is watching “very carefully” how Washington and the world respond to Vladimir Putin’s war.

Speaking on the heels of a visit to Moscow by Chinese president Xi Jinping, Blinken told a Senate foreign relations hearing that if Russia was allowed to attack its neighbour with impunity, it would “open a Pandora’s box” for would-be aggressors and lead to a “world of conflict”.

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Taiwan prepared ‘for all moves’ by China while President Tsai is abroad

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Tsai Ing-wen will visit allies Guatemala and Belize next week, and stopover in the US, after Honduras said it would establish ‘official relations’ with China

Taiwan’s defence ministry has contingency plans for any moves by China during Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s visit to the US and Central America, deputy defence minister Po Horng-huei has said ahead of Tsai’s departure next week.

China, which claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, carried out large-scale, live-fire war games around the island last August after a visit to Taipei by then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

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Former Taiwan president to visit China in unprecedented trip

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Ma Ying-jeou’s tour is first since end of civil war and comes amid intensifying efforts by China to subsume Taiwan

Taiwan’s former president Ma Ying-jeou will visit China this month in the first visit by a current or former leader since the defeated Nationalist Chinese government fled to the island at the end of the civil war in 1949.

The high-profile visit has been presented by Ma and his party, the opposition Kuomintang (KMT), as a chance to boost friendly cross-strait exchanges at a time of extreme disconnection, which has been driven by Beijing’s plans to annex Taiwan and exacerbated by the pandemic. However, it is also likely to fuel domestic political division between the KMT and ruling Democratic Progressive party (DPP) over relations with China.

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Don’t ‘quench your thirst with poison’, Taiwan tells Honduras after switch to China

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Taiwan foreign ministry warns of China debt trap, as US says Beijing ‘makes many promises that are unfulfilled’

Taiwan has urged Honduras not to “quench your thirst with poison and fall into China’s debt trap”, adding it would not compete monetarily with China to keep its formal allies after its decision to switch diplomatic ties from Taipei to Beijing this week.

Honduran president Xiomara Castro announced on Tuesday that her country would begin to establish an official relationship with Beijing, in effect severing its ties with Taipei.

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Honduras to switch ties from Taiwan to China, says president

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Xiomara Castro’s move would leave Taiwan with formal diplomatic relations with only 13 countries

The Honduras president, Xiomara Castro, has said she has instructed her foreign minister to establish official relations with China, a move that would end its ties with Taiwan and further isolate the island on the world stage.

The Central American country’s switch from Taipei to Beijing would leave Taiwan with formal diplomatic ties with only 13 countries.

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Outgoing president of Micronesia accuses China of bribery, threats and interference

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In his letter, Panuelo openly canvassed the country switching its diplomatic recognition from Beijing to Taipei

China is engaged in “political warfare” in the Pacific, the outgoing president of the Federated States of Micronesia has alleged in an excoriating letter, accusing Beijing officials of bribing elected officials in Micronesia, and even “direct threats against my personal safety”.

Two months before his term as president expires, David Panuelo’s letter alleged China was preparing for conflict over the island of Taiwan, and that its goal in interfering in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) was to render the country neutral in any potential Pacific war.

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Paul Keating blasts Age and SMH for ‘provocative’ China war story

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Former Australian PM criticises ‘extent of the bias’ in newspapers’ front-page report warning of armed conflict in Indo-Pacific

The former Australian prime minister Paul Keating has accused two of the country’s biggest newspapers of “the most egregious and provocative news presentation” in five decades, after they published front-page stories warning the country faced war with China within three years.

The former Labor leader, who has long argued Australia should not be drawn into a war over the status of democratically governed Taiwan, took aim at the Sydney Morning Herald and the Age on Tuesday.

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China foreign minister warns of potential for conflict with US and hails Russia ties

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In a bellicose first press conference, Qin Gang rebuked Washington over its Taiwan policy and the balloon incident, while praising Beijing’s relationship with Russia

The US and China are heading towards inevitable conflict if Washington does not change its approach, China’s new foreign minister has said in a fiery press conference in which he defended his country’s strengthening relationship with Russia.

In his first media appearance as foreign minister, held on Tuesday on the sidelines of the “two sessions” political gathering, Qin Gang outlined China’s foreign policy agenda for the coming years, presenting China and its relationship with Russia as a beacon of strength and stability, and the US and its allies as a source of tension and conflict.

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China foreign minister warns against ‘fuelling the fire’ over Ukraine conflict

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Qin Gang ‘deeply concerned’ about war spiralling out of control and appears to hit back at US for ‘shifting blame to China’

China’s new foreign minister has accused the US of shifting blame for the Ukraine war on to China, in an apparent pushback against warnings from Washington that China is considering supplying weapons to Russia.

Speaking on Tuesday morning, at the launch of a Chinese government paper on its global security initiative, Qin Gang said China was “deeply concerned” about the war in Ukraine escalating and possibly “spiralling out of control”.

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Taiwan visit by Chinese delegation spurs internal political tensions

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Visit to Taipei by Shanghai officials was arranged by mayor from opposition Kuomintang party, attracting accusations of secrecy

A Chinese government delegation has visited Taiwan for the first time since the start of the pandemic, sparking some partisan tension on the island over cross-strait interactions as Beijing reiterated its intentions to annex it.

The delegation of six officials, including the deputy head of the Shanghai office of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, Li Xiaodong, arrived in Taipei with plans to visit the Lantern festival and hold talks with local officials. They were invited by the city government, led by mayor Chiang Wan-an, of the opposition Kuomintang party (KMT).

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US reaction to balloon ‘absurd and hysterical’, says top Chinese diplomat

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Wang Yi also says China is preparing to outline position on Russian war against Ukraine

China’s most senior diplomat has described the shooting down of a balloon by the US as “absurd and hysterical”, as well as an abuse of the use of force.

Speaking on stage at the Munich security conference on Saturday, Wang Yi said: “It does not show the US is strong; on the contrary it shows it is weak”. The foreign affairs director said he believed the shooting down was part of an attempt to divert attention from the domestic problems of the Biden administration.

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Truss urges west to safeguard Taiwan security ‘before it’s too late’

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In Tokyo speech to conservative lawmakers, former British PM issues warning about Chinese aggression

Liz Truss has used her first overseas speech since resigning as British prime minister to call on the west to safeguard Taiwan’s security and economy in the face of Chinese aggression “before it is too late”.

Speaking in Tokyo at a meeting of mainly conservative lawmakers that included the former Australian prime minister Scott Morrison, Truss said Britain had been naive to court the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, in 2015, adding that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine should serve as a warning of what happens when democracies fail to stand up to authoritarian regimes.

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Top Pentagon official to visit Taiwan, report says, amid US-China tensions

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Relations between Beijing and Washington have soured since the US accused China of sending a spy balloon into its airspace

A top Pentagon official will visit Taiwan in coming days, according to reports, as attempts between the US and China to repair relations continue to backslide after the US shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon in its airspace.

Michael Chase, deputy assistant secretary of defence for China, is expected to visit Taiwan in coming days, according to the Financial Times, after he leaves Mongolia where he is meeting its military.

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Truss to call for tough sanctions against China if it escalates Taiwan tensions

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Former PM will warn in Tokyo ‘free world is in danger’ in apparent attempt to put pressure on Rishi Sunak

Britain and the rest of the G7 should urgently agree a tough package of sanctions to impose on China if it escalates military tensions with Taiwan, Liz Truss will argue, as she uses her first public overseas speech to pile pressure on Rishi Sunak.

Speaking in Tokyo on Friday, the former prime minister will urge her successor to be more hawkish in standing up to Beijing, warning coordinated action is needed to block “the rise of a totalitarian China” given “the free world is in danger”.

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Kevin Rudd: Australia’s incoming ambassador to US says balloon saga threatens push to ease tensions with China

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Former Labor prime minister says incident has created ‘diplomatic clouds’ that may overshadow efforts to stabilise relationship

The incoming Australian ambassador to the United States, Kevin Rudd, has warned the Chinese balloon saga has created new “diplomatic clouds” that put at risk recent efforts to ease tensions between Beijing and Washington.

In a speech in Brisbane on Wednesday, Rudd also warned against expecting any “softening in China’s ideological cleavage with the west”.

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UK rehearsing economic fallout scenarios if China invades Taiwan

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Exclusive: Whitehall officials planning strategy to tackle disruption to global supply chains in the aftermath of an attack

Whitehall officials have strategised a series of scenarios about the economic fallout that could follow if China were to invade Taiwan, sources have told the Guardian.

Concerns about the major disruption to global supply chains and consequences of any coordinated western response have been examined by civil servants as part of what is said to be routine “forward-scanning” exercises.

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