TAIPEI: Taiwan saw off China’s military six decades ago when its forces bombarded offshore Taiwanese islands and that resolve to defend the homeland continues to this day, President Tsai Ing-wen told a visiting group of former US officials on Tuesday.
Tensions between Taiwan and China have spiked over the past month following the visit to Taipei by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. China staged war games near Taiwan to express its anger at what it saw as stepped up US support for the island Beijing views as sovereign Chinese territory.
Meeting a delegation of former US officials now at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Tsai referred to China’s more than a month of attacks on the Taiwan-controlled islands of Kinmen and Matsu, just off the Chinese coast, which started in August 1958.
“Sixty-four years ago during the Aug. 23 battle, our soldiers and civilians operated in solidarity and safeguarded Taiwan, so that we have the democratic Taiwan today,” she said, using the common Taiwanese term for that campaign, which ended in stalemate with China failing to take the islands.
“That battle to protect our homeland showed the world that no threat of any kind could shake the Taiwanese people’s resolve to defend their nation, not in the past, not now, and not in the future,” Tsai said.
“We too will show the world that the people of Taiwan have both the resolve and confidence to safeguard peace, security, freedom and prosperity for ourselves.”
In 1958, Taiwan fought back with support from the United States, which sent military equipment including advanced Sidewinder anti-aircraft missiles, giving Taiwan a technological edge.
Often called the Second Taiwan Strait Crisis, it was the last time Taiwanese forces joined battle with China on a large scale.
James O. Ellis, now a visiting fellow at Hoover and a retired US Navy admiral, said his delegation’s presence in Taiwan reaffirmed the American people’s commitment to deepening cooperation.
“Consistent with the Taiwan Relations Act, part of this cooperation involves strengthening Taiwan’s capabilities for self defense as well as the ability of the United States to deter and resist any resort to force across the Taiwan Strait,” Ellis told Tsai, referring to a US law that requires it to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself.
Matt Pottinger, who served as former US President Donald Trump’s deputy national security adviser, is also part of the delegation.
The United States, which ditched formal diplomatic relations with Taipei in favor of Beijing in 1979, remains Taiwan’s most important source of arms.
“As Taiwan stands on the front line of authoritarian expansionism we continue to bolster our defense autonomy, and we will also continue to work with the United States on this front,” Tsai said.
China’s drills near Taiwan have posed a threat to the status quo in the strait and across the region, and democratic partners should work together to “defend against interference by authoritarian states,” she added.
Following that meeting, Tsai met two Japanese lawmakers, and other foreign parliamentarians are also expected to visit this year, including from Canada and Britain, defying Chinese pressure not to go.
Taiwan’s government says that as the People’s Republic of China has never governed the island it has no right to claim it or decide its future, which can only be set by Taiwan’s 23 million people.
Taiwan saw off China before and retains resolve to defend itself, president says
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Taiwan saw off China before and retains resolve to defend itself, president says
- Tensions between Taiwan and China have spiked over the past month following the visit to Taipei by US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
King Charles III arrives in Rome on state visit, first overseas trip since brief hospitalization
- Charles is traveling with Queen Camilla on the three-day visit, which includes the first address to the Italian Parliament of a British monarch
- A planned meeting with Pope Francis was postponed by mutual agreement due to the pope’s bout with double pneumonia
ROME: King Charles III arrived in Rome on Monday for a state visit to Italy on his first overseas trip since being briefly hospitalized for side effects of cancer treatment.
Charles is traveling with Queen Camilla on the three-day visit, which includes the first address to the Italian Parliament of a British monarch, visits with the Italian president and premier and a side trip to Ravenna to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Adriatic city’s liberation by Allied forces.
A planned meeting with Pope Francis was postponed by mutual agreement due to the pope’s bout with double pneumonia. The 88-year-old pontiff returned to the Vatican two weeks ago, and made a surprise appearance to the faithful in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday.
Charles, 76, was briefly hospitalized March 27 due to “temporary side effects” from treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer diagnosed more than a year ago. The king appeared the next day, waving to well-wishers in central London, and has since resumed scheduled engagements.
In Rome, Charles will highlight the close links between Britain and Italy, two NATO allies, at a time when European nations are working to bolster support for Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression. The visit will include a joint flyover of Rome’s historic center by the Italian Air Force aerobatic team, Frecce Tricolori, or Tricolor Arrows, and their Royal Air Force counterparts, the Red Arrows.
The king and queen will attend a reception in Ravenna, in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy, to mark the 80th anniversary of the region’s liberation from the Nazis by Allied forces on April 10, 1945. The royals will also celebrate the cuisine of the Emilia-Romagna region and meet with local farmers whose fields were devastated by floods that recently hit the area.
Thousands of Afghans depart Pakistan under repatriation pressure
- Thousands of Afghans have crossed the border from Pakistan in recent days as Islamabad ramped up pressure for them to return to Afghanistan
- Families with their belongings in tow lined up at the key border crossings of Torkham in the north and Spin Boldak in the south
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan: Thousands of Afghans have crossed the border from Pakistan in recent days, the United Nations and Taliban officials said, as Islamabad ramped up pressure for them to return to Afghanistan.
Pakistan last month set an early April deadline for some 800,000 Afghans carrying Afghan Citizen Cards (ACC) issued by Pakistan authorities to leave the country, another phase in Islamabad’s campaign in recent years to repatriate Afghans.
Families with their belongings in tow lined up at the key border crossings of Torkham in the north and Spin Boldak in the south, recalling similar scenes in 2023 when tens of thousands of Afghans fled deportation threats in Pakistan.
“In the last 2 days, 8,025 undocumented & ACC holders returned via Torkham & Spin Boldak crossings,” the UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a post on social media platform X on Monday.
“IOM stands ready to scale up its response at key border points with forced returns expected to surge in the coming days,” it said.
Taliban officials also said thousands of people had crossed the border, but at lower rates than the IOM reported.
Refugee ministry spokesman Abdul Mutalib Haqqani told AFP that 6,000-7,000 Afghans had returned since the start of April, saying “more than a million Afghans might return.”
“We are urging Pakistan authorities not to deport them (Afghans) forcefully — there should be a proper mechanism with an agreement between both countries, and they must be returned with dignity,” he said.
Fleeing successive conflicts
The UN says nearly three million Afghans live in Pakistan, many having lived there for decades after fleeing successive conflicts in their country and after the Taliban’s return to power in Kabul in 2021.
“We were forced to return. Two days ago I was stopped and asked for documentation when they were searching houses,” 38-year-old Abdul Rahman told AFP after passing the Spin Boldak crossing with his family from Quetta, in Pakistan’s southwest, where they lived for six years.
“They didn’t even gave me an hour (to leave), I sold a carpet and my phone to make some money to come here, all my other belongings we left behind,” he said.
Human rights activists have been reporting for months the harassment and extortion of Afghans in Pakistan, a country mired in political and economic chaos.
More than 1.3 million Afghans who hold Proof of Registration cards from the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, have also been told to move outside the capital Islamabad and the neighboring city of Rawalpindi.
Human Rights Watch has slammed “abusive tactics” used to pressure Afghans to return to their country, “where they risk persecution by the Taliban and face dire economic conditions.”
Ties between the neighboring countries have frayed since the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan.
Islamabad has accused Kabul’s rulers of failing to root out militants sheltering on its soil, a charge that the Taliban government denies, as Pakistan has seen a sharp rise in violence in border regions with Afghanistan.
Ex-detainees at UK asylum center bring claim against govt
- Inspector was ‘rendered speechless’ after seeing conditions at Manston site
- Syrian woman suffered miscarriage, Sudanese man allowed to shower once in 33 days
LONDON: At least 250 asylum-seekers detained at a UK facility are suing the government for unlawful detention after it emerged that the site was dangerously overcrowded and faced infectious disease outbreaks.
Manston asylum center in Kent, used by the Home Office to process people who had crossed the English Channel on small boats, was once described by a union official as a “humanitarian crisis on British soil,” The Guardian reported on Monday.
David Neal, the former independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, said he was “rendered speechless” after seeing conditions at Manston.
Andy Baxter, a senior official at the Prison Officers’ Association, also condemned conditions at the site after being warned by union members working there.
He described Manston as closely resembling a refugee camp in an unstable country after visiting the site, which he said was “in crisis.”
Marquees that were intended to be used for hours upon the arrival of asylum-seekers had been used for more than a month, despite the Home Office planning to relocate arrivals to more permanent accommodation. People slept on the ground using pieces of cardboard, he added.
Manston also faced diphtheria and scabies outbreaks, with one man dying after contracting the former, a rarity in the UK due to vaccination. Kent Police also investigated claims that guards at the facility had assaulted asylum-seekers.
One of the claimants against the government, a 19-year-old Sudanese national, was detained at the site for 33 days, and his past experience of being tortured and trafficked was never recorded by officials at Manston.
While at the facility, he was “often hungry” and was allowed one shower during the 33-day period.
He was also denied a change of clothes, and was told by officials to “go back to your country.”
A 17-year-old Kurd from Iraq, detained for 12 days, had his birth date recorded as five years older than his real age, despite telling officials he was a child.
A Syrian woman who arrived in the UK with her husband and five children outlined the troubling details of her ordeal in the claim.
Her husband was removed to a separate immigration center after complaining about conditions at Manston, yet she was not informed about his whereabouts and feared he had been deported.
The woman and her children spent 11 days in a freezing, dirty tent, and were only permitted to leave to go to the toilet.
Her children contracted a stomach bug that was circulating at the site, and she had nowhere to wash their vomit-stained clothes.
She later discovered that she was pregnant after suffering morning sickness, and was unable to access medical care in Manston.
After being released and seeking treatment, she discovered that she had suffered a miscarriage.
She has now reunited with her husband together with their children, but said the experience at Manston continues to affect the family.
Emily Soothill of law firm Deighton Pierce Glynn, who is representing some of the claimants, said: “We consider that our clients were falsely imprisoned and that the conditions in Manston were such that their human rights were breached.
“People seeking asylum are more vulnerable to physical and mental illness; they have the right to be treated with dignity and should not be detained in this way.”
Son of elderly British couple held by Taliban asks for US help
- Peter, Barbie Reynolds have been jailed for 9 weeks despite having ‘never heard one accusation or one charge’
- Couple have lived in Afghanistan for 18 years running education, training programs for locals
LONDON: The son of a British couple currently detained in Afghanistan has asked the US for assistance in obtaining their release, saying they have “never heard one accusation or one charge.”
Peter Reynolds, 79, and his wife Barbie, 75, who have lived in Afghanistan for 18 years, were arrested on Feb. 1 by the Taliban in Bamiyan province over what they believed was a flight permit issue.
However, despite being initially told it was a minor problem and that they would be released, the pair, along with Chinese-American friend Faye Hall and their translator, had their phones confiscated and were later transferred to a Kabul jail by the Interior Ministry.
Their son Jonathan Reynolds, who lives in Chicago, told Sky News that the pair and their family had not been given an explanation by the authorities for their nine-week detention.
“Originally they (authorities) said they didn’t have the right paperwork to have a chartered plane, which was incorrect and it was all produced,” he said.
“They took a short flight (to Bamiyan from Kabul) to pick up a Chinese-American friend who has visited multiple times,” he added.
“I believe there have been 29 investigative interviews with staff members — people they have served and supported — and everything has come up as no credible charges.”
In February, the Taliban said the pair were arrested because it was believed their Afghan passports were fake.
Peter Reynolds has said he was told books “against Islam” had been confiscated at their house in Afghanistan, but officials had not followed up on these claims.
“They’ve been in and out of court, which is infuriating for them because there’s no charges and they are told every single time: yes, they are innocent, it’s just a formality, we’ve made a mistake,” Jonathan Reynolds said.
In February, the BBC reported that a Taliban official had said the government was keen for the couple to be released.
Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani was quoted by The Independent as having said: “A series of considerations is being taken into account, and after evaluation, we will endeavor to release them as soon as possible.”
Hall was released on March 29 after bounties placed on the heads of various Taliban figures, including the interior minister, were dropped by the US. The Taliban said her release was “a goodwill gesture.”
Peter Reynolds told the BBC: “Anybody who has the ability to unlock that key and let them out, whether it be the Taliban, whether it be the British government or whether it be the American government, I would ask — do it now, please.”
The family previously appealed to the Taliban to show clemency for Eid Al-Fitr, when the regime handed out amnesties to several thousand detainees in its prisons.
The couple, who married in Kabul in 1970, run the Rebuild organization, which provides training and educational programs for local people.
“I think anyone who goes in their 60s and 70s to live and become Afghan citizens is probably not naive to the dangers of it,” Jonathan Reynolds told Sky.
“If they wanted to live a quiet, retired life and be around their grandkids they could have done that.
“They are under a deep conviction from back in the late 60s when they married in Afghanistan in 1970 that they were going to give their life for a bright future for Afghanistan.”
He said he is extremely concerned for his parents’ welfare, especially as food and medicine are limited in the Taliban’s prison system.
EU and Qatari officials have been able to get essentials to the couple, who are being held separately, and Jonathan Reynolds expressed gratitude to Qatar for aiding his parents.
However, contact with them has been limited to the use of a pay phone in the jail — and the couple have had no direct contact with each other since being jailed.
French Middle East expert defiant despite pro-Palestinian protest
- Balanche was giving lecture to students last week when around 20 individuals shouting pro-Palestinian slogans accused him of racism
PARIS: A prominent French academic specializing in the Middle East Monday vowed to carry on teaching courses and file a complaint after pro-Palestinian protesters ejected him from his own lecture.
Fabrice Balanche, associate professor and research director at the University of Lyon 2 in southeastern France and a prominent expert on Iraq and Syria regularly quoted in international media, vowed “not to give into pressure.”
Balanche was giving lecture to students last week when around 20 individuals shouting pro-Palestinian slogans accused him of racism, and being too close to the ousted Bashar Assad regime in Syria, surged into the lecture theater.
“And then they surrounded me, started to insult me, calling me pro-Israeli, genocidal. And so when I heard that, I left the lecture hall. They tried to chase me, but fortunately, I had students who intervened,” he told RMC TV.
He said he would file a complaint but would resume teaching his course on Tuesday, albeit with a university security agent present.
“I plan to continue my classes normally,” he said, adding it was “out of the question” to even move the lectures to another campus of the university.
Balanche, who rose to prominence as a commentator on Syria during the country’s civil war, in this interview and other comments vehemently rejected having any bias in favor of the Assad regime, which Islamists ousted in late 2024.
France’s right-leaning government has leaped to his defense with Prime Minister Francois Bayrou denouncing “unacceptable pressure” against him in the incident on April 1, in an interview with Le Parisien published Saturday.
French authorities have said Balanche was targeted because he supported the university’s decision not to allow a fast-breaking Ramadan meal on its premises.
But a group calling itself Autonomes de Lyon 2 that claimed the action denied this, accusing him of “unacceptable positions on Palestine and Syria.”
France’s Higher Education Minister Philippe Baptiste has described the incident as “serious,” adding on his social media account that the judiciary and the university would “deal with these unacceptable acts with the utmost firmness.”
