Focus Taiwan
Date: 2019/03/23
By: Rita Cheng and Frances Huang
Washington, March 22 (CNA) An official from the U.S. State Department said Friday that
Patrick Murphy/Image taken from Wikimedia
China was “busy” changing the status quo across the Taiwan Strait through moves including imposing military threats against Taiwan, poaching the island’s allies and raising pressure to cut its international space.
Patrick Murphy, the U.S. State Department’s principal deputy assistant secretary for East Asian and Pacific affairs, said in an interview with Voice of America (VOA) that the primary desire for the United States was to see a strong commitment to maintaining the status quo.
“China has been busy changing the status quo on this arrangement that has produced prosperity, stability, and peace, even with some of the unusual aspects,” Murphy said when he was in Hawaii during a trip to the U.S. state, Thailand and Indonesia.
“What I mean by changing the status quo is we have heard voices in Beijing threaten the use of violence directed at Taiwan; we have seen China aggressively try to reduce the number of diplomatic partners that Taiwan enjoys around the world,” the official told VOA.
[FULL STORY]
