China has indicated that it would like the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to host this year’s KMT-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forum in Taiwan, but the KMT has declined on the grounds that the timing is too sensitive, according to sources inside the party.
The Cross-Straits Economic Trade and Culture Forum has been hosted seven times, always in China, since its inception in 2006, and has played a major role as a platform for dialogue between KMT and CCP leaders.
Since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office in 2008, both parties have said they would like to host the forum in Taiwan, but that wish has yet to be realized.
Since the Ma administration came to power, it has sought to refer to the get-together as a “cross-strait forum” rather than a KMT-CCP forum.
According to sources, this year’s forum was scheduled for the summer and the CCP was “very much” hoping that it would be hosted in Taiwan. At the same time, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Wang Yi (王毅) has said that he would like to visit Taiwan
In the past, the highest-ranking Chinese official to attend the KMT-CCP forum has been the chairman of its top political advisory body — the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. Wang and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) have also attended.
If the forum was held in Taiwan and the same rules were -applied, that would mean National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference chairman Jia Qinglin (賈慶林) and Wang would attend, which would make it a major cross-strait event.
Noting Jia’s high rank in the CCP, the sources said he would be highly unlikely to come if the forum was held in Taiwan, but added that Wang would probably attend.
However, the sources also said that the Ma administration was sensitive to the idea of senior -Chinese officials visiting Taiwan and was therefore inclined to decline the offer to host the forum.
With Ma’s presidential inauguration on May 20, the CCP’s 18th Party Congress slated to take place in the autumn and another scheduled meeting between Chen and Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤), the source said it was a difficult time for the KMT to host the forum in Taiwan.
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff Writer
TPP RALLY: The clashes occurred near the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall on Saturday at a rally to mark the anniversary of a raid on former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je People who clashed with police at a Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) rally in Taipei on Saturday would be referred to prosecutors for investigation, said the Ministry of the Interior, which oversees the National Police Agency. Taipei police had collected evidence of obstruction of public officials and coercion by “disorderly” demonstrators, as well as contraventions of the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法), the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. It added that amid the “severe pushing and jostling” by some demonstrators, eight police officers were injured, including one who was sent to hospital after losing consciousness, allegedly due to heat stroke. The Taipei
NO LIVERPOOL TRIP: Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, who won a gold medal in the boxing at the Paris Olympics, was embroiled in controversy about her gender at that event Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-ting (林郁婷) will not attend this year’s World Boxing Championships in Liverpool, England, due to a lack of response regarding her sex tests from the organizer, World Boxing. The national boxing association on Monday said that it had submitted all required tests to World Boxing, but had not received a response as of Monday, the departure day for the championships. It said the decision for Lin to skip the championships was made to protect its athletes, ensuring they would not travel to the UK without a guarantee of participation. Lin, who won a gold medal in the women’s 57kg boxing
The US has revoked Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) authorization to freely ship essential gear to its main Chinese chipmaking base, potentially curtailing its production capabilities at that older-generation facility. American officials recently informed TSMC of their decision to end the Taiwanese chipmaker’s so-called validated end user (VEU) status for its Nanjing site. The action mirrors steps the US took to revoke VEU designations for China facilities owned by Samsung Electronics Co and SK Hynix Inc. The waivers are set to expire in about four months. “TSMC has received notification from the US Government that our VEU authorization for TSMC Nanjing
CHINESE INCURSIONS, SORTIES: President William Lai thanked military officers for shouldering the responsibility of defending the survival and development of Taiwan President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said that aggression would inevitably fail, pointing — on the day before a mass military parade in Beijing — to the lessons from World War II and key victories Taiwan claims against Chinese forces in 1958. Taiwan has over the past five years repeatedly complained about heightened Chinese military activity including war games around the nation as Beijing steps up pressure to enforce territorial claims that Taipei rejects. Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), flanked by Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, are to oversee a military parade in Beijing today to mark the
RSS