Attempts by Beijing to improve cross-strait relations would have to include a fundamental change in how China deals with issues concerning Taiwan, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday in response to the latest remarks by the Chinese leadership.
During a closed-door meeting on Saturday with Taiwan’s APEC envoy, former vice president Lien Chan (連戰), Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) said the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should communicate and negotiate on issues pertaining to Taiwan’s participation in international organizations.
Such issues should be resolved through joint cross-strait negotiations “to avoid unnecessary internal friction and unpleasant events in the future,” Hu told Lien on the sidelines of the APEC meeting.
Tsai said it would be “too naive” for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to take Hu’s comments at face value, adding that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration had already tried to appease Beijing — with no results — for the past two years.
“[Hu’s] comments don’t have too much substantial meaning,” she said. “If Hu’s basic attitude and fundamental policies don’t change, none of this will resolve our problems.”
“That is why we call on [the Chinese leadership] and ask them to alter the attitude they use when dealing with Taiwan’s problems,” she added.
Lien attended the APEC leaders’ summit as Ma’s representative.
During Saturday’s meeting between Lien and Hu, the two referred to each other using their party titles, with Lien addressing Hu as “General-Secretary Hu,” and Hu addressing Lien as “Chairman,” since Lien is an honorary KMT chairman.
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
‘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
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