Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
At the KMT's central headquarters yesterday, party Secretary-General Lin Feng-cheng (
A press release issued by the Presidential Office yesterday confirmed the KMT's statement and added that Yu had originally called to tell Lin to convey Chen's willingness to personally call Lien before the trip.
"[Since] President Chen has such expectations, we will not let him down," Lin said yesterday morning.
Lin also said that while he would prefer to meet with Yu after his trip to China next week, he would also be open to the possibility of meeting earlier.
Lin will be heading to Beijing next week to discuss the final details of Lien's tour of China with China's Taiwan Affairs Office.
The news about the phone call came as a positive note in the ongoing conflict between the administration and the KMT over Lien's trip to China. Given that the Lien trip is being made in response to an invitation extended by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) last month, the administration has alternately urged the KMT to discuss the matter with it and looked into the legality of the ten proposals produced during KMT's Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kun's (
Despite the friendly move yesterday, conflict between the administration and the KMT was apparent.
Speaking at the KMT's Central Advisory Council (CAC) meeting yesterday, Lien said that recent comments by Vice President Annette Lu (
Saying that Lu had been to China in 1990 to visit her family's ancestral home, Lien said that viewing Lu's 1990 trip as permissable and his trip as collaboration with the CCP was unfair. In comparison, Lien said, he will be going for only a few days and his schedule will be made public, unlike Lu, who was in China for 26 days on a private visit.
Lien also said that he will report the details of his trip to the public once the details are settled by Lin. While Lin will be heading to China next week, Lien headed to Singapore late yesterday to speak at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy with Chiang. Lien is expected to return today.
Another focus of media attention yesterday were reports by the Chinese-language newspapers United Daily News and China Times that during Lien's trip, Lien and Chinese President Hu Jintao (
Speaking at KMT headquarters yesterday, Lin denied that the KMT had plans to sign such an agreement with the CCP.
Also see story:
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS