Taipei Times
Date: Apr 29, 2017
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

Purchasing arms is not the policy the public expects of President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on the eve of the anniversary of her inauguration, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday.

Tsai in a Reuters interview on Thursday said that her administration does not “rule out any items that would be meaningful to our defense and our defense strategy, and the F-35 is one such item,”

Tsai also said she does not “exclude the opportunity to call [US] President [Donald] Trump himself, but it depends on the needs of the situation and the US government’s consideration of regional affairs.”

KMT Culture and Communications Committee deputy director Tang Te-ming (唐德明) said Tsai’s remarks indicated that she is “still anticipating friendly moves on the US’ part and hoping that Washington could be leaning toward [Taiwan] when it comes to cross-strait affairs.”    [FULL  STORY]