The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) have agreed to allow KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) to visit China, a Hong Kong daily said yesterday.
"Chinese authorities have agreed in principle to the idea of Lien Chan ... visiting China in June this year," a Hong Kong's Ming Pao daily quoted "reliable sources" as saying.
The report comes amid the media hype surrounding the visit of a 30-member KMT delegation headed by party Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kun (江丙坤) on a self-proclaimed "ice-breaking journey" to China.
Chiang yesterday held a meeting in Beijing with Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council, that marked the first of such meetings between the two former rival parties 56 years after 1949, when the KMT was militarily defeated by the Chinese Communist Party in the civil war. The meeting was reportedly focusing on economic cooperation and cross-strait exchanges.
"We have openly reiterated many times that we are willing to talk with any Taiwan representatives, groups or parties, who accept the 92 `consensus' and oppose Taiwan's independence," Chen said during the meeting.
Chen Yunlin said the meeting covered issues including importing agricultural products from Taiwan, resuming exportation of fishermen to Taiwan, cross-strait insurance and monetary exchanges, regular cross-strait flights on the weekend and holidays and direct cargo flights.
The trip has been touted by the KMT as the first contact between party leaders since the KMT fled to Taiwan in 1949. According to the Ming Pao, KMT Legislator Chu Feng-chih (朱鳳芝), a member of the KMT delegation, revealed that if the current trip was successful and if Beijing extended goodwill, Lien's proposed trip to China might be possible in June.
The Ming Pao reported that there was a tacit agreement reached last year that Lien would visit China prior to assuming the presidency if he won the election, and that Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) would meet him in person. The plan was dropped after Lien lost the election.
Meanwhile, Chiang visited the tomb of party founder Sun Yat-sen yesterday, laying a wreath at Sun's mausoleum outside Nanjing, the Nationalists' former capital. Both the CCP and the KMT revere Sun as leader of the 1911 revolution that ended imperial rule and created a Chinese republic.
"My heart was filled with limitless excitement and deep emotion," Chiang said. "It was very moving to visit."
Chiang's visit comes amid a surge in tensions over China's "Anti-Secession" Law. Chiang also visited the former Nationalist presidential office, where he signed a guestbook with the phrase "ice-breaking journey."
Both the KMT and the communists see his five-day trip as sealing a reconciliation. They have found common cause in uniting Taiwan with China and their dislike for President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Meanwhile, Chinese academics yesterday said in Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po that the time was not yet "ripe" for chairman of the National People's Congress' Standing Committee Wu Bangguo (吳邦國) to visit Taiwan, but said that Taiwan was taking the initiative in cross-strait relations by paying visits to China.
KMT Legislative Speaker Wang Jing-pyng had proposed sending a delegation to China to invite his Chinese counterpart to Taiwan on Tuesday.
CHIPMAKING INVESTMENT: J.W. Kuo told legislators that Department of Investment Review approval would be needed were Washington to seek a TSMC board seat Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) yesterday said he received information about a possible US government investment in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and an assessment of the possible effect on the firm requires further discussion. If the US were to invest in TSMC, the plan would need to be reviewed by the Department of Investment Review, Kuo told reporters ahead of a hearing of the legislature’s Economics Committee. Kuo’s remarks came after US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Tuesday said that the US government is looking into the federal government taking equity stakes in computer chip manufacturers that
NORTHERN STRIKE: Taiwanese military personnel have been training ‘in strategic and tactical battle operations’ in Michigan, a former US diplomat said More than 500 Taiwanese troops participated in this year’s Northern Strike military exercise held at Lake Michigan by the US, a Pentagon-run news outlet reported yesterday. The Michigan National Guard-sponsored drill involved 7,500 military personnel from 36 nations and territories around the world, the Stars and Stripes said. This year’s edition of Northern Strike, which concluded on Sunday, simulated a war in the Indo-Pacific region in a departure from its traditional European focus, it said. The change indicated a greater shift in the US armed forces’ attention to a potential conflict in Asia, it added. Citing a briefing by a Michigan National Guard senior
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant
ENHANCED SECURITY: A Japanese report said that the MOU is about the sharing of information on foreign nationals entering Japan from Taiwan in the event of an emergency The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday confirmed that Taiwan and Japan had signed an agreement to promote information exchanges and cooperation on border management, although it did not disclose more details on the pact. Ministry spokesman Hsiao Kuang-wei (蕭光偉) said the ministry is happy to see that the two nations continue to enhance cooperation on immigration control, in particular because Taiwan and Japan “share a deep friendship and frequent people-to-people exchanges.” “Last year, more than 7.32 million visits were made between the two countries, making it even more crucial for both sides to work closer on immigration and border control,” he said. Hsiao
RSS