President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) APEC envoy, Lien Chan (連戰), yesterday discussed the idea of signing a cross-strait peace agreement during a meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), drawing criticism from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which said this constituted a violation of Ma’s “10 guarantees.”
During his 55-minute meeting with Hu in Honolulu, Hawaii, prior to the main APEC leaders’ summit scheduled for yesterday and today, Lien put forward the issue of signing a cross-strait peace agreement, saying he hoped both sides “could start to exchange views on the peace issue.”
Lien expressed the hope that both sides could review the issue in due time, but that this should be a more long-term goal.
Photo: AFP
In Taipei, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) criticized Lien, saying his remarks suggested that “Ma’s ‘10 guarantees’ are a lie.”
The DPP was referring to the “10 guarantees” Ma gave late last month that include “one framework, two prerequisites, three principles and four assurances” that he said would need to be in place before Taiwan would consider working toward a peace accord with China.
DPP spokesperson Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said Lien should have focused his talks with Hu on issues relating to international trade.
“That Lien broached the [peace agreement] issue with Hu shows that the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] has already started to negotiate with the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] on the peace accord behind closed doors,” Chen said.
Noting that Ma had initially included negotiating a peace accord in his “golden decade” policy, but then later said a peace accord would not need to be limited to a decade, Chen added: “After Lien’s meeting with Hu yesterday, it seems that the negotiations aren’t going to take a decade as Ma said they would: They have already started. Ma has already started negotiations on a peace accord.”
Saying that since the annual KMT-CCP summit began in 2005 and a Lien-Hu communique was signed, which included a point on resuming cross-strait negotiations to achieve peace, Chen said: “Ma’s unilateral decision to use the results of the 2005 KMT-CCP closed-door negotiations as the guiding principle to negotiate a peace accord with China is using the will of one person and one party to decide the fate of the country.”
“The move is pushing Taiwanese toward fear and an uncertain future,” he said, adding: “Ma should tell us what he’s worried about and explain why his cross-strait policies are so contradictory and rash.”
During the Lien-Hu meeting yesterday, the two also touched on the so-called “1992 consensus.” Hu said both sides should stick to the consensus and safeguard the peaceful development of cross-strait ties, while Lien said the consensus is the basis for the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and the cornerstone of cross-strait trade benefits and prosperity.
Lien also urged China to speed up negotiations on a cross-strait investment protection agreement and follow-up issues relating to the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement.
According to Lien, Hu acknowledged the complex nature of the issues and said that they would be resolved one by one.
Additional reporting by Rich Chang
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff writer
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS