The recent meeting between President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has won approval in Washington, David Lee (李大維), Taiwan's representative to the US, said on Tuesday.
Washington was very interested in the Chen-Ma meeting said Lee, adding that US government officials were thoroughly scrutinizing an American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) report on the discussion.
Chen and Ma held a rare public meeting on Monday, highlighting their differences over relations with China and opposing views on a multibillion-dollar US arms procurement package.
Lee, responding to a question from the press after presenting soon-to-retire chairman of the US Congress House International Relations Committee Henry Hyde with the Order of the Brilliant Star with Grand Cordon on behalf of Chen, said that Washington was hoping to see more talks between the government and opposition parties over the next two years to facilitate the formation of consensus on economic and cross-strait issues.
He added that the issue of the scrapping of the National Unification Council (NUC) and unification guidelines was a thing of the past, and had not been brought up again by the US.
Concerning the meeting between Chinese leader Hu Jintao (
However, as China was likely to bring up the Taiwan issue during the talks, Taipei will be paying particular attention to how they develop.
Lee told reporters that he had yet to receive any directives from Taipei regarding making arrangements with US officials for Chen's planned trip to Central America in May.
Responding to comments made to the Chinese-language press by Assistant US Trade Representative for China Affairs Timothy Stratford that signing a Free Trade Agreement with Taiwan was not currently a US priority, Lee said that the preparations were an ongoing process, and not something that would necessarily bear fruit in the space of one or two years.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
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