President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) referred to Taiwan as a “province” yesterday while describing the sister-state relationship between Taiwan and Texas, rekindling the controversial issue of his perception of Taiwan’s status.
Ma told Texas Governor Rick Perry during a meeting at the Presidential Office that the country’s relationship with Texas was a close one.
“In 1988, Texas and Taiwan Province became sister states,” Ma said. “Over the past two years, we have engaged in many exchanges in technology, culture, education and agriculture.”
Ma thanked the Texas legislature for passing a resolution last year reaffirming the “sister state and sister province” relationship.
However, Ma’s description ran counter to the one stated in Resolution 81(R) HR 1593 passed by the Texas House of Representatives in June last year, which states: “Texas and Taiwan are celebrating the 21st anniversary of their Sister State relationship in June 2009.”
“Texas and Taiwan became Sister States on June 13, 1988, and today 11 jurisdictions within Texas enjoy similar ties with their Taiwanese counterparts ... the House of Representatives of the 81st Texas Legislature hereby commemorate the 21st anniversary of the signing of the Sister State agreement between Texas and Taiwan and extend sincere best wishes to all those who are engaged in strengthening Texas-Taiwan Sister relations; and, be it further rsolved that an official copy of this resolution be prepared for the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston as an expression of high regard by the Texas House of Representatives” it said.
The Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Houston, however, refers to Taiwan as a “province” on its official Web site.
Titled “Regional Relationships,” the site says the “State of Texas established a sister-state relationship with Taiwan Province in 1988, and at present, ten Texas cities/county have sisterhood relationships with cities in Taiwan.”
Liu Shih-chung (劉世忠), a research fellow at the Taiwan Brain Trust think tank, said Ma’s logic made sense under the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution, which views China as part of its territory.
“But it is impractical and runs counter to political reality,” he said.
In the eyes of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Liu said the ROC was long subjugated when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lost the Chinese civil war in 1949. For the DPP, Taiwan is an independent sovereignty whose current name is the ROC, he said.
Liu said he did not have any problem with the sister-state relationship between Taiwan and Texas in terms of trade. What worried him, however, was Ma’s backtracking to the former KMT administration’s “unrealistic” mindset that China is part of the ROC and the relationship between Taiwan and China is one of region to region.
Taiwan has relationships with 42 US states, the Arkansas-based Taiwan-United States Sister Relations Alliance says.
DPP spokesman Tsai Chi-chung (蔡其昌) said Taiwan is a sovereign county, not a province.
Ma was “belittling the country to such an extent that he is not qualified to be the country’s head,” Tsai said, adding that the president failed to protect the country’s dignity and was instead humiliating Taiwan before foreigners.
Ma sees Taiwan as part of China and all his policies stem from that position, Tsai said, adding that Taiwanese could not bear such remarks.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG
NEXT GENERATION: The four plants in the Central Taiwan Science Park, designated Fab 25, would consist of four 1.4-nanometer wafer manufacturing plants, TSMC said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to begin construction of four new plants later this year, with the aim to officially launch production of 2-nanometer semiconductor wafers by late 2028, Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau director-general Hsu Maw-shin (許茂新) said. Hsu made the announcement at an event on Friday evening celebrating the Central Taiwan Science Park’s 22nd anniversary. The second phase of the park’s expansion would commence with the initial construction of water detention ponds and other structures aimed at soil and water conservation, Hsu said. TSMC has officially leased the land, with the Central Taiwan Science Park having handed over the
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
AUKUS: The Australian Ambassador to the US said his country is working with the Pentagon and he is confident that submarine issues will be resolved Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd on Friday said that if Taiwan were to fall to China’s occupation, it would unleash China’s military capacities and capabilities more broadly. He also said his country is working with the Pentagon on the US Department of Defense’s review of the AUKUS submarine project and is confident that all issues raised will be resolved. Rudd, who served as Australian prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and for three months in 2013, made the remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado and stressed the longstanding US-Australia alliance and his close relationship with the US Undersecretary