Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) yesterday set two preconditions for cross-strait discussions on the removal of Chinese missiles targeting Taiwan, but emphasized the time is not ripe for such talks.
“Before politically related issues are placed on the table, the public must come to a consensus and both sides of the Taiwan Strait must have a sufficient amount of trust in each other. However, the current conditions are inadequate,” said Lai, who on Tuesday called on China to address concerns about its military buildup targeting Taiwan during her meeting with China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林). Lai declined to offer details of their private conversation.
When asked by reporters when would be a good time for Taipei and Beijing to sit down and talk about the issue, Lai said high-level cross-strait talks have been held in Taiwan three times since 2008 and she had brought up the subject on each occasion she had met Chen.
Lai said she had told Chen during their meetings that the council’s position on the matter was that China should take the initiative to adjust its missile deployment against Taiwan.
Regarding when the two sides should discuss non-economic or political issues, Lai said the government’s policy on cross-strait negotiations is clear: Both sides should tackle easier and urgent issues first and economic issues precede political ones.
Lai made the remarks during the question-and-answer session at a press conference she chaired where Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) presented the agreement on medical and health cooperation he signed with Chen on Tuesday.
Chen referred to Lai as “you” during their meeting on Tuesday, Lai said yesterday, but she added it was clear that she had met Chen in her capacity as the head of the council.
“I called him Chairman Chen, but the ARATS is not an official government agency,” she said. “He sometimes addressed me as ‘you’ or ‘Shin-yuan’ or both ... I personally feel very sorry that he could not call me by my official title, but he must have his own considerations.”
Although the two sides failed to close a deal on investment protection this time, Lai said the government would never sign an accord just for the sake of it. It would instead proceed under the principle of taking a Taiwan-centered approach and doing anything beneficial for the people of Taiwan.
Over the past two-and-a-half years, both sides have signed 15 agreements. That proves that the government not only plays a leading role in setting the agenda of negotiations, but also has successfully advanced Taiwan’s economic and social development and protected the public interest, she said.
“We take concrete actions to protect our sovereignty, security and industries, and various polls have showed that our efforts have received overwhelming support from the public,” she said.
At a separate setting, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said Chen’s remarks that Taiwan and China should sit down to discuss the removal of missiles amounted to a political maneuver.
“Their political motives for this are very clear,” DPP spokesperson Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said. “On the one hand they hold talks with Taiwan, and on the other, they continue to deploy more missiles aimed at us.”
Any talks should be conducted openly and transparently, Cheng said, adding that the DPP was opposed to any sort of backroom deals between cross-strait negotiators.
If that happened, it would likely be against Taiwan’s long-term interests, he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY VINCENT Y. CHAO
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
RSS