Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) yesterday urged President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to prioritize cross-strait affairs after taking over as Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman and use the KMT-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cross-strait forums to arrange a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
Ma announced at a press conference on Wednesday that he would run in the KMT chairman election on July 26 to push for closer cooperation between the government and the party. Ma is a shoo-in for the position after KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) said at the same setting that he would not run for re-election.
Hau said cooperation between the government and the party was crucial, but the most important mission for Ma as the next KMT chairman would be to push cross-strait relations.
“The KMT-CCP forum has been the platform for leaders of the two sides to meet and reach consensus on cross-strait affairs,” Hau said yesterday when meeting reporters at Taipei City Hall.
“I believe cross-strait development will make more progress if President Ma attends the KMT-CCP forum in his capacity as KMT chairman,” he said.
When asked whether or not he would attend the KMT-CCP forum and meet Hu after taking over as KMT chairman, Ma said on Wednesday that he would not address the issue until formally taking over the position in September.
Wu will attend this year’s KMT-CCP forum next month.
Ma will formally take over the chairmanship on Sept. 12 and serve until September 2013.
Local media outlets speculated that a Ma-Hu meeting could be held in 2012 as Hu’s term as CCP chairman will end in the same year and a KMT vice president would attend the next forum.
KMT Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) yesterday urged the president to plan a meeting with Hu as soon as possible after becoming KMT chairman, adding that a meeting could promote “healthy cross-strait interaction.”
DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) said on Wednesday that Ma wanted to use the chairman position to promote quick unification with China.
China’s China Daily reported yesterday that “the prospects of the highest-level talks between the mainland and Taiwan” had soared with Ma set to become the KMT chairman.
“Although Ma has to visit Beijing in his capacity as KMT chairman and talk to Hu in his role as general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, the unprecedented meeting will signal ‘great reconciliation’ between the mainland and Taiwan,” it said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY FLORA WANG, RICH CHANG AND STAFF WRITER
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique