Taiwanese officials responded with caution yesterday to a Chinese official’s announcement of a plan to build a rail link between Beijing and Taipei.
Responding to a Xinhua report yesterday in which Chinese Minister of Railways Liu Zhijun (劉志軍) was quoted as saying that Beijing was “actively planning” the rail link, Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said China would have to take professional and political aspects into consideration.
Wang declined to comment further.
“The railway network is expected to lay a foundation of transport infrastructure for the cross-strait economic zone,” Xinhua quoted Liu as saying.
The rail line may stretch across the body of water between Xiamen, a city in the southeastern Chinese province of Fujian, and Taiwan, the news agency said. It did not specify how trains would cross the 180km Taiwan Strait.
At a separate setting yesterday, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) cast doubt on the need for a cross-strait railroad, saying that both sides of the Strait were making efforts to improve transportation links, including sea, air and postal links.
Regular flights will also be on the agenda at the third session of high-level cross-strait talks scheduled for sometime in the next few months, he said, adding that cross-strait transportation links already had a “solid foundation.”
As China has previously proposed building a freeway to Taiwan, Liu Te-shun said it was necessary for both sides to “shorten the psychological distance.”
He said it was also debatable whether there was any need for a “cross-strait economic zone.”
What mattered more was building a better investment environment and protecting the interests of Taiwanese businesses based in China, Liu Te-shun said.
When approached for comment, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said he opposed the cross-strait railway idea because it would put Taiwan in an unfavorable strategic position.
The railway plan was also illogical, as focusing on air links between Beijing and Taipei would be a better way of improving cross-strait trade ties, Huang said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) said current transportation links between Taiwan and China and the regular cross-strait charter flights the two nations plan to discuss would be sufficient to satisfy the needs of both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Building a railway between Taipei and Beijing in a bid to boost cross-strait trade ties would be “uneconomic,” he said.
Regarding the Kinmen County Government’s plan to build a bridge from Kinmen to Xiamen, Liu Te-shun said his understanding was that the Council for Economic Planning and Development had decided “in principle not to build it.”
Wang said the Presidential Office respected the council’s decision.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) told local residents during his inspection trip to Kinmen on Aug. 24 last year that, although there should not be any technical problem building the proposed Kindeng Bridge (金嶝大橋), he would like them to consider the political implications and effectiveness of building a bridge to China.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
RSS