The U.S State Department on Monday approved a potential $100 million arms sale to Taiwan, including maintenance and upgrades on the island’s Patriot Air Defense missile systems.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen said last week that her government is carefully studying the success of Ukrainian drone warfare against invading Russian forces, and will make a substantial investment to speed up drone development so Taiwan enjoys similar advantages against a potential Chinese invasion.
Chen Ming-tong, Director-General of Taiwan’s National Security Bureau, told a session of the Taiwanese legislature on Monday that Russia’s poor performance during its invasion of Ukraine could give China second thoughts about attacking Taiwan.
Chinese officials and state media lashed out at former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday, denouncing him as a “lunatic” and the “worst” to ever hold his office because he called on the United States to extend diplomatic recognition to Taiwan while he was visiting the island.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has called upon the United States to recognize Taiwan as an independent nation.
Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen ordered her country’s military to be “combat ready” on Wednesday in case an “outside force” stages an attack on the sovereign island while the West is distracted by an unfolding political crisis between Russia and Ukraine, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.
Taiwan is scheduled to hold four referendums on Saturday, one of them concerning a ban on American pork products that was lifted in January.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – Lawmakers from all three Baltic states met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Monday in a sign of further cooperation between European Union nations and Taiwan.
The Global Times, a Chinese government propaganda outlet, declared the top goal of dictator Xi Jinping’s upcoming discussion with President Joe Biden on Monday night ‘suppressing ‘Taiwan secession.'”
China’s government-run media have responded to President Tsai Ing-wen’s revelation of an American military presence in Taiwan explosively, warning on Thursday that those troops could “trigger a war.”
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen on Tuesday offered the first official confirmation that a small contingent of American troops is stationed in Taiwan and helping to train its soldiers.
Amid unprecedented aggression from communist China, Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen said the country will not “bow down to pressure.”
A former Australian PM has accused China of being a bully and expressed enthusiastic support for Taiwan while visiting the island.
In an op-ed published by Foreign Affairs on Tuesday, Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen warned that China’s increasingly aggressive behavior toward her island could be the prelude to an invasion that would be “catastrophic for regional peace and the democratic alliance system.”
Taiwan announced a defense spending increase of $9 billion on Thursday, citing the “severe threat” posed to its security by increasingly aggressive China. On Friday, Taiwan scrambled fighters as ten Chinese warplanes penetrated its Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ).
The Chinese government has been conspicuously silent since the assassination of President Jovenel Moise of Haiti on Wednesday. Haiti is a notable diplomatic ally of Taiwan, which China has been working to isolate.
China’s state-run Global Times on Thursday hectored the United States for supposedly being more interested in selling weapons to Taiwan than life-saving coronavirus vaccines, even as Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen accused China of sabotaging a deal that would have brought Pfizer’s vaccine to her country.
The United Nations (U.N.) omitted Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen from a celebration of women leaders on International Women’s Day, drawing criticism from Taiwan’s foreign ministry on Sunday.
Chinese government officials and state media were livid about American arms sales to Taiwan this week, vowing retaliation against the United States and punitive sanctions for every American company involved in the sales.
Amid worsening relations with China, the Indian government is reportedly growing more receptive to trade overtures from Taiwan, while also considering closer oversight of investment proposals from China.
China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) staged a large-scale exercise simulating an island invasion on Saturday, the same day as Taiwan’s National Day holiday, Chinese state media reported on Monday.
Chinese state media was livid on Tuesday after Taiwan’s Kuomintang (KMT) – the more pro-Beijing of the major Taiwanese parties – introduced legislation that would ask for American assistance against Chinese Communist aggression.
The Taiwanese Defense Ministry on Monday complained about a “high frequency of harassment and threats” from the Chinese military throughout 2020 and asserted its right to “self-defense and to counter attack,” although it pledged to avoid escalation.
The Taiwanese air force scrambled fighters on Friday as 18 Chinese warplanes swarmed across the midpoint of the Taiwan Strait, part of an aggressive Chinese military exercise meant to intimidate visiting U.S. Under Secretary for Economic Affairs Keith Krach.
U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Keith Krach announced on Tuesday that he will visit Taiwan to attend a September 19 memorial service for former President Lee Teng-hui.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – The Czech Senate president met with Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen and other top government officials Thursday during a rare trip by a foreign dignitary to the self-ruled democratic island that rival China called an “open provocation.”
The Taiwanese government announced relaxed restrictions on imported American beef and pork this weekend, a move President Tsai Ing-wen hoped would “boost Taiwan-U.S. ties” and build international trust.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) – The Czech Republic’s top legislator on Monday told an economic forum in Taiwan that freedom and democracy are the basis of prosperity, on the second day of a visit that has drawn vows of retaliation from Beijing.
China’s Coast Guard said on Wednesday it intercepted a speedboat carrying 12 Hong Kong protesters who were attempting to flee to Taiwan. The passengers were charged with illegally crossing the border and detained in the mainland Guangdong province.
The government of Taiwan revealed Thursday that it has charged three men — all of whom worked for Taiwanese lawmakers — with espionage, accusing them of attempting to steal President Tsai Ing-wen’s medical records.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen in a video statement at a U.S. think tank event in Washington on Wednesday touted the strength of the U.S.-Taiwan relationship amid a growing threat from China.
Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) fighter jets crossed the “middle line” of the Taiwan Straits on Monday morning, one hour before U.S. Health Secretary Alex Azar met with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen, Taiwan’s Island Defense Ministry said.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar told Breitbart News exclusively he views his trip to Taiwan as a message from the United States to the world that Taiwan is and has been a “very important partner” with the U.S. when it comes to global health security.
U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar defied noisy protests from Beijing and touched down in Taiwan on Sunday to begin the highest-level visit by an American Cabinet official since formal diplomatic relations between Washington and Taipei ended in 1979.
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar will visit Taiwan in coming days, his office said on Tuesday, marking the highest-level visit by a U.S. official since formal ties ended in 1979 – a move China described as “endangering peace.”
China’s state propaganda outlet Global Times published two obituaries for Taiwan’s first democratically elected president, Lee Teng-hui, following his death Thursday disparaging him as a “national sinner” and declaring his death “not a sad news [sic].”
Scuffles erupted inside Taiwan’s legislative chamber on Friday as opposition lawmakers protested for the third day President Tsai Ing-wen’s nomination of her senior aide to a top government watchdog role, Reuters reported on Friday.
Taiwan carried out a major live-fire military drill on Thursday to simulate repelling a Chinese amphibious invasion, pointedly demonstrating a strategy the Defense Ministry described as “enemy annihilation on the shore.”
Former pro-China presidential candidate Han Kuo-yu became the first mayor in the history of Taiwan to lose his job via recall this weekend. More residents of his city, Kaohsiung, voted to recall him than voted to elect him in 2018.
Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen wrote a Facebook post on Thursday commemorating the 31st anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. She described June 4 as a day the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) thinks it can erase from the calendar.
