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.
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
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
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
RSS