In the weeks ahead of the anniversary
china engaged in jet flybys across a de
facto maritime border with taiwan and
issued a veiled threat of a strike. Through the taiwan relations act the u.s
congress made sure that taiwan would
survive its darkest hour and have the
opportunity to transform itself into the
free society and robust democracy we are
today, Sai said in a tuesday video call
to an event hosted by the center for
strategic and international studies in Washington.
The act reflects the united states
commitment to our shared interests of
peace, security and stability in the
pacific Psy said. She raised alarms over chinese military
overtures which she said were
detrimental to regional peace and
stability. Sai expressed hopes of further arms
sales to taiwan to help the island
defend itself. I hope that the united states can make
clear at a very senior level that it
considers the security of taiwan vital
to the defense of democracy, she said.
Cross-strait tensions have been on the
rise since late last month starting with
size march 27 meeting with a hawaii
national guard general while returning
home from a pacific tour. On march 31 china flew two fighters over
to the taiwanese side of the maritime
border in the taiwan strait. It is possible that the chinese military
will carry out targeted strikes on a
taiwanese military base, the chinese
communist party affiliated global times
set in an editorial last week.
Beijing considers the mainland and
taiwan part of one china and rejects the
existence of the median line. The march 31st crossing was initially
considered an accident but the global
times editorial suggests that it may
have been intentional. We make no promise to renounce the use
of force and reserve the option of
taking all necessary means, chinese
president Xi Jinping had said in a
january speech departing from immediate
predecessor Hu Jintao's silence on the
topic.
Xi's Hawkish stance underscores an
effort to appease hard-liners at home. As the trade war weighs on the economy
he looks to prevent such discontent from
spreading to the public.Tensions only grew as the taiwan
relations act's anniversary approached a
spokesperson for the american institute
in taiwan the de facto u.s embassy on
the island acknowledged april 3 that
american military personnel has been
stationed there since 2005 for security
purposes. This was significant given that the u.s
and taiwan do not have formal diplomatic
relations. Taiwanese authorities revealed tuesday
that the u.s defense department has
approved 5.7 million in arms maintenance
services for the island.
