The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has said it is unable to accept a Chinese official’s request that the party give up its pro-independence stance.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Yang Yi (楊毅) told Xinhua news agency yesterday: “We hope the DPP can truly realize that there is a dead-end road if it does not give up the stance of ‘Taiwanese independence.’”
The comments came after DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said earlier that the DPP would not rule out engaging in direct dialogue with China, as long as there were no preconditions.
DPP spokesperson Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) told reporters that the Chinese response was regrettable and that it failed to respect Taiwan’s democratic society.
“We had hoped that the Chinese government would have taken the opportunity to understand Taiwan and its people, instead of just the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT],” he said.
The DPP boss has said in recent interviews that she would be willing to open talks with China and that future cross-strait relations would be more “stable and consistent.”
Analysts have said the move shows the DPP is willing to prove it can manage cross-strait relations ahead of the 2012 presidential election.
However, Tsai Ing-wen has emphasized the need for China to drop any preconditions to talks.
Tsai Chi-chang said that as long as China demands the DPP abandon independence, talks between the DPP and China, which have been stalled since former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration, wouldn’t be able to move forward.
“Our position is very clear; the DPP cannot accept any political preconditions from China,” Tsai Chi-chang said. “At the same time, we have to ask, has the government already accepted these Chinese preconditions as the basis for cross-strait talks?”
Yang also said: “Opposition against Taiwanese independence and an insistence on the ‘1992 consensus’ are the political grounds for the betterment and development of cross-strait relations.”
The “1992 consensus” refers to a supposed agreement that was said to spell out that both Taiwan and China agreed to a “one China” principle, but with different interpretations. The KMT’s Su Chi (蘇起) admitted in 2006 that he had made the term up in 2000.
A magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck off the southern coast of Mindanao in the Philippines at 7:38am today, prompting the US Tsunami Warning System to issue an alert for neighboring countries, including Taiwan. The system issued a purple alert indicating a "tsunami threat." The potential threat zone includes Taiwan, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Yap and Palau. Philippine authorities were assessing the damage from the quake, with the office of civil defense seeking to verifying initial reports that 15 people had been killed and 129 injured in the region, mostly from falling debris. Arlene Hollero, disaster chief of Maasim town in the Philippines' Sarangani Province,
‘GRAY ZONE’ PRESSURE: Beijing’s activities are intended to create the deceitful impression that China has jurisdiction over the area around Taiwan, the CGA said Taiwan’s rights over its territorial waters and exclusive economic zone must not be violated by any country, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that it will not accept any unprovoked actions. The council issued the remarks in response to the China Coast Guard conducting maritime enforcement drills near eastern Taiwan and claiming to fully exercise China’s maritime administrative law enforcement authority. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) has been closely monitoring the situation and is taking concrete steps to defend the nation’s sovereignty and secure its waters, the council said. China has no sovereign rights over the waters off eastern
RESILIENCE: Taiwan plays a key role in semiconductors, energy, information infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, AIT Director Raymond Greene said Taiwan’s continued investment in deterrence and resilience remains vital, especially in uncrewed systems and other emerging technologies, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday. Greene made the remarks at the annual National Strategic Summit on Supply Chain Resilience held by the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET), a government-backed think tank. As Taiwan last year became the US’ fourth-largest trading partner and supply chain security is becoming more important, cooperation in emerging technologies continues to deepen between the two countries, he said. The US is committed to accelerating innovation, building key infrastructure, strengthening cooperation
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
RSS