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.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
TRAGEDY STRIKES TAIPEI: The suspect died after falling off a building after he threw smoke grenades into Taipei Main Station and went on a killing spree in Zhongshan A 27-year-old suspect allegedly threw smoke grenades in Taipei Main Station and then proceeded to Zhongshan MRT Station in a random killing spree that resulted in the death of the suspect and two other civilians, and seven injured, including one in critical condition, as of press time last night. The suspect, identified as a man surnamed Chang Wen (張文), allegedly began the attack at Taipei Main Station, the Taipei Fire Department said, adding that it received a report at 5:24pm that smoke grenades had been thrown in the station. One man in his 50s was rushed to hospital after a cardiac arrest
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
ON ALERT: Taiwan’s partners would issue warnings if China attempted to use Interpol to target Taiwanese, and the global body has mechanisms to prevent it, an official said China has stationed two to four people specializing in Taiwan affairs at its embassies in several democratic countries to monitor and harass Taiwanese, actions that the host nations would not tolerate, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which asked him and Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) to report on potential conflicts in the Taiwan Strait and military preparedness. Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) expressed concern that Beijing has posted personnel from China’s Taiwan Affairs Office to its
RSS