Taiwan and China’s top cross-strait negotiators may meet on Nov. 3 in Taipei, with the schedule expected to be finalized during a preparatory round of talks in China on Monday, Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) announced yesterday.
Chiang told a press conference at the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) office yesterday afternoon that he had proposed Nov. 3 to his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林).
If all goes well during the meeting with SEF officials in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, on Monday, China will finalize the date and itinerary, Chiang said.
ITINERARY
The SEF chief said that Chen’s itinerary would be simple: Aside from the official meeting and signing of agreements, Chen will visit some of Taiwan’s tourist attractions.
Chiang and Chen met for the first time in June after cross-strait talks were suspended in 1998. During the June meeting, the two sides signed agreements to launch weekend cross-strait charter flights and ease the cap on Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan.
The agenda of the upcoming Chiang-Chen meeting will include expansion of weekend charter flights, direct aviation routes, charter cargo flights, direct sea transport, postal cooperation and establishing a food safety cooperation mechanism.
MAC Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) said yesterday that establishing direct aviation routes would not compromise national security, adding that the Ministry of National Defense fully supports the proposal.
Responding to concerns on how Chen would address President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) during their meeting, Lai said Ma is the president of the Republic of China and no matter what title Chen uses to address Ma, it will not change the fact that Ma is the president of the country.
“The arrangement will be made under the principle of equality and dignity,” she said. “We will follow the arrangements used in the first negotiations held in Beijing.”
When asked by the Taipei Times on former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) suggestion that Taipei reject Chen Yunlin’s visit if Beijing does not support Taiwan having its own interpretation of “one China,” Lai said she did not understand why both sides should refuse to hold talks if the agreements served the public interest.
Saying the resumption of the negotiation channel between the quasi-official SEF and ARATS has the support of the Taiwanese and the international community, Lai said it was important to use the channel to address issues that arise during the course of exchanges between peoples on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
PEACEFUL
“It is bound to help the peaceful and stable development of cross-strait relations,” she said.
Asked to comment on the confrontation between Taiwanese activists and ARATS Vice Chairman Zhang Mingqing (張銘清) in Tainan on Tuesday, Lai said that the administration would make sure that Chen’s visit is “safe, dignified, comfortable.”
“We are confident that he will be well protected,” Lai said, adding that the National Security Bureau and the National Police Agency would cooperate to ensure his safety.
Also See: Chen pans Ma for ‘breaking’ vow
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
RSS