US, Japanese lawmakers back Taiwan

US and Japanese lawmakers agree that the US must defend the First Island Chain, including Taiwan, and should not fall back to the Second Island Chain, while “a Taiwan contingency is a Japan contingency and therefore a US-Japan alliance contingency,” media reported after a meeting between officials of the two nations in Washington on Tuesday. A delegation of Japanese lawmakers from the Liberal Democratic Party met with US Senator Thom Tillis, co-chair of the Senate Taiwan Caucus, and US Representative Ami Bera, co-chair of the US Congressional Taiwan caucus, to discuss issues concerning East Asia and the Taiwan Strait. The Japanese and US lawmakers concurred that deterring China is key to preventing a conflict across the Taiwan Strait, Nippon.com reported. Photo: CNA “We were able to share the understanding that a crisis involving Taiwan is indeed a crisis for Japan and a crisis for the Japan-US alliance,” the news Web site quoted Japanese House of Councilors member Hirofumi Takinami as saying. The US lawmakers expressed support for Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s statement in the Diet in November last year that the use of force by China could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially satisfying a legal condition for exercising collective self-defense, it said. Takinami told the Central News Agency that the participants rejected the idea, reportedly advocated by some Washington think tanks, that the US should limit its defensive perimeter to the Second Island Chain in the event of a regional conflict. Photo: CNA They instead stressed the importance of defending the First Island Chain, including Taiwan, he said. The participants at the meeting were in full agreement on the importance of Taiwan to Japan and the US, he said. Takinami said the participants agreed on the connection between a Taiwan contingency and the security of Japan and the US-Japan alliance, and on the value of strengthening coordination through parliamentary exchanges, in line with Takaichi’s and former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe’s stance on Taiwan. Abe said while he was prime minister that “a Taiwan contingency would be a Japan contingency.” They acknowledged that the semiconductor industry in Taiwan plays a critical role in US and Japanese economic security, which is intrinsic to their national security interests, he said. The delegation also included House of Councilors members Daichi Suzuki and Kazuhiro Miyamoto. Bera issued a statement following the meeting. “I was pleased to meet with members of the Japanese Diet to discuss how we can continue strengthening the alliance between our two nations,” he said. “There remains strong bipartisan support in Congress for maintaining peace and stability across the Indo-Pacific and supporting our democratic partner Taiwan. Congress and the Japanese Diet have an important role to play in strengthening cooperation at the legislative level to help deter conflict, uphold the rules-based international order, and preserve a free and open Indo-Pacific.” Separately, US Senator Pete Ricketts said that the US would not tolerate any attempt to change the status of Taiwan by force. He spoke at the Hudson Institute think tank on competition with China. Reporters afterward asked him whether Taiwan would be discussed during an expected meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday next week. Trump should address the issue within the context of the US’ position, which has not changed, Ricketts said. “We are not going to tolerate a change in the status of Taiwan by force,” said Ricketts, who is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on East Asia, the Pacific and International Cybersecurity Policy. Trump in December last year approved a US$11 billion arms package for Taiwan, the largest to date, Ricketts said. Asked about a proposed US$14 billion arms package for Taiwan that has not yet been approved by the Trump administration, he said that the immediate priority should be delivering weapons already promised to Taiwan. “That’s the best thing we can do for the Taiwanese,” he said, adding that the US was about US$30 billion behind in arms deliveries. Taiwan should continue to improve its deterrence capability against China, including through increased defense investment and efforts to reform the reserve system, he said. Ricketts said that the US should avoid being “held hostage” by supply chains dependent on China, particularly for critical minerals and pharmaceutical precursors. The goal is to avoid war, he said, adding that a conflict between the US and China would be harmful to both countries and the rest of the world. PRICE STABILIZATION: The Ministry of Economic Affairs has urged the legislature to support the Cabinet’s supplementary budget for state-owned energy companies State-owned oil supplier CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) on Saturday announced that it would raise domestic gasoline prices by NT$0.7 (US$0.02) per liter and diesel prices by NT$0.6 per liter this week after international crude oil prices rose above US$100 per barrel last week. Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) yesterday said that it matched CPC’s price adjustments for this week. The decisions end a six-week period during which CPC and Formosa kept fuel prices in Taiwan unchanged. Retail gasoline prices this week would rise to NT$31.2, NT$32.7 and NT$34.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively at CPC ‘GLOBAL WARNING’: The infiltration is not just a local problem, as Beijing has been deploying the same tactics worldwide against Western democracies, a report said Between 50,000 and 100,000 Chinese spies are operating in Taiwan, far more than the National Security Bureau’s previous estimate of 5,000, German journalist and author Jurgen Kremb said on Monday. Kremb presented his research, titled “The War of Spies: How China’s Intelligence Services Are Infiltrating Taiwan — and What Europe Must Learn from It,” at a joint event held by the Taiwan offices of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the European Values Center for Security Policy. The report was published in June in the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau’s Prospect & Exploration Monthly (展望與探索月刊). By spies, he said he was referring to informants, More than 100 Taiwanese-Americans, Taiwanese lawmakers and members of civic groups on Saturday marched through New York City to call for Taiwan’s participation in the UN, with Marshall Island Permanent Representative to the UN John Silk joining the event to show support. Participants chanted: “UN for Taiwan” and “Keep Taiwan Free” as they marched through central Manhattan, passing Times Square and Bryant Park before ending near the New York Public Library. The annual march brought together Taiwanese community groups from across the US East Coast. Silk expressed hope that Taiwan would one day be able to participate in UN meetings Two aides at independent Legislator May Chin’s (高金素梅) office were ordered detained incommunicado yesterday in a broadening probe into alleged Chinese espionage by Chin’s former chief of staff, Chang Chun-chieh (張俊傑). The move to hold Lin I-chun (林怡君) and current chief of staff Chen Chih-huang (陳智葟) in custody came four days after Chang, indicted on corruption charges, cut off his electronic monitoring wristband and jumped bail. The High Prosecutors’ Office said that it believes Chang had developed a Chinese spy ring, which might have operated for more than a decade, with funding from China, and that Lin and Chen were suspected of