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
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
CHIP WAR: The new restrictions are expected to cut off China’s access to Taiwan’s technologies, materials and equipment essential to building AI semiconductors Taiwan has blacklisted Huawei Technologies Co (華為) and Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp (SMIC, 中芯), dealing another major blow to the two companies spearheading China’s efforts to develop cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) chip technologies. The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ International Trade Administration has included Huawei, SMIC and several of their subsidiaries in an update of its so-called strategic high-tech commodities entity list, the latest version on its Web site showed on Saturday. It did not publicly announce the change. Other entities on the list include organizations such as the Taliban and al-Qaeda, as well as companies in China, Iran and elsewhere. Local companies need
CRITICISM: It is generally accepted that the Straits Forum is a CCP ‘united front’ platform, and anyone attending should maintain Taiwan’s dignity, the council said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it deeply regrets that former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) echoed the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) “one China” principle and “united front” tactics by telling the Straits Forum that Taiwanese yearn for both sides of the Taiwan Strait to move toward “peace” and “integration.” The 17th annual Straits Forum yesterday opened in Xiamen, China, and while the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) local government heads were absent for the first time in 17 years, Ma attended the forum as “former KMT chairperson” and met with Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Chairman Wang Huning (王滬寧). Wang
CROSS-STRAIT: The MAC said it barred the Chinese officials from attending an event, because they failed to provide guarantees that Taiwan would be treated with respect The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday night defended its decision to bar Chinese officials and tourism representatives from attending a tourism event in Taipei next month, citing the unsafe conditions for Taiwanese in China. The Taipei International Summer Travel Expo, organized by the Taiwan Tourism Exchange Association, is to run from July 18 to 21. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) on Friday said that representatives from China’s travel industry were excluded from the expo. The Democratic Progressive Party government is obstructing cross-strait tourism exchange in a vain attempt to ignore the mainstream support for peaceful development
RSS