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
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo on Friday expressed concern over the rate at which China is diversifying its military exercises, the Financial Times (FT) reported on Saturday. “The rates of change on the depth and breadth of their exercises is the one non-linear effect that I’ve seen in the last year that wakes me up at night or keeps me up at night,” Paparo was quoted by FT as saying while attending the annual Sedona Forum at the McCain Institute in Arizona. Paparo also expressed concern over the speed with which China was expanding its military. While the US
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS