While last week's meeting between President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) had demonstrated its friendly attitude toward China, the government will take a wait and see attitude in deciding how to deal with the enactment of an "anti-secession" law next month, Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday.
"Although Chen and Soong reached a consensus on promoting permanent charter flights, lifting high technology investment restrictions in China, and even opening up the `three big links' with China, the government will ... decide how to deal with the expected anti-secession law when it is eventually established," Hsieh said at a tea party with reporters held by the Cabinet yesterday afternoon.
China is expected to discuss a draft of an anti-secession law on March 8 during a session of the National People's Congress.
Hsieh said that as the anti-secession law would offer a legal basis for China to use military force to solve cross-strait problems, the government is taking the law very seriously.
Meanwhile, asked about the idea of creating a new Taiwan constitution, Hsieh said the current Constitution has already been "Taiwanized."
"The current Constitution, amended six times since 1992, has already been Taiwanized. So unlike the Taiwan Solidarity Union's (TSU) denial of the current Constitution and PFP's desire to maintain it, the government and the DPP's position is to amend the current Constitution to fit Taiwan," Hsieh said.
He said the government recognized that the Constitution had been designed to govern China, and welcomed all citizens to join discussions on constitutional amendments later this year.
"Taiwan must come up a new amended Constitution useful for it to join the international community. If the various parties continually just tackle the issue of national identity, we will probably never step into the international community," he said.
Asked about Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) plan to visit China in April, Hsieh said that he offered his best wishes to Lien and welcomed any activity which could promote better cross-strait relations.
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
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‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)