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Home The News News US to help fend off PRC meddling

US to help fend off PRC meddling


US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver speaks at the Asia Policy Assembly conference in Washington on Wednesday.
Photo: screen grab from the Internet

In anticipation that China will try to meddle in next year’s presidential election, the US has started dialogue with Taiwan to help strengthen its ability to deal with the issue, a US official said on Wednesday.

“It’s a very important issue for us,” US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver said at the conclusion of a forum in Washington on Asian policies that touched on Taiwan’s presidential election.

“There’s no question in our minds that China will try to meddle, as it has done in every previous election,” Schriver said.

In 1996, it came in the form of missile exercises, he said, adding that in 2000, then-Chinese premier Zhu Rongji (朱鎔基) threatened Taiwanese voters.

Schriver was referring to an incident in 1996 in the buildup to Taiwan’s first direct presidential election in which China fired missiles into waters near Taiwan, apparently to dissuade people from voting for then-president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝).

Ahead of the 2000 presidential election, Beijing resorted to verbal threats, with Zhu warning voters not to vote for then-Democratic Progressive Party candidate Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).

The biggest challenge facing Taiwan is the growing sophistication of the tactics used by China, Schriver said, adding that this time it is expected to use social media and cyberintrusions to interfere in Taiwan’s election.

Dialogue between the US and Taiwan has started, Schriver said, but declined to divulge details, adding only that the US would contribute to Taiwan’s abilities and expertise as the election approaches.

Also at the forum, American Institute in Taiwan Chairman James Moriarty said that the relationship between Taiwan and the US is governed not by policy, but by the US’ Taiwan Relations Act.

Taiwan is described as a beacon of democracy, which means that any Taiwanese younger than 35 has “democratic DNA,” he said.

“They expect to elect their leaders, they expect to be able to criticize their views, they expect to be able to throw out their own stuff,” Moriarty said.

After the forum, Moriarty told reporters that China should make sure its attempts to resolve cross-strait issues are acceptable to the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.

China’s “one country, two systems” formula is not helpful and not attractive to Taiwan, he added.


Source: Taipei Times - 2019/06/21



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Newsflash

The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday reported the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and KMT Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) to prosecutors and accused them of forgery and breaching the Referendum Act (公民投票法) after the Central Election Commission on Thursday said that 1 percent of the signatures that the KMT submitted for three referendum proposals belonged to dead people.

Forging signatures for referendum petitions is a crime under Article 211 of the Criminal Code and Article 35 of the Referendum Act, TSU spokesman Yeh Chih-yuan (葉智遠) told a news conference outside the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday.