Political analysts and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) politicians yesterday criticized President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for describing cross-strait relations as not international and cross-strait flights as domestic flights.
“What Ma has been doing in the past five years, in terms of external relations, is lying. He lied to the Taiwanese, the US and Beijing, hoping to reap benefits and personal gains,” political commentator Nan Fang Shuo (南方朔) said on the sidelines of a DPP-organized forum in Taipei.
At the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) weekly Central Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday, Ma, noting that domestic flights in the US have been more profitable than international flights, said that Taiwan’s airline companies would not have been profitable if they were not operating cross-strait routes.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
“The relations between Taiwan and China are exactly like that,” Ma was quoted as saying.
His comment was interpreted to mean that cross-strait flights are domestic flights.
Ma also drew fire with his Double Ten National Day speech on Oct. 10 when he said the cross-strait relations were not international relations.
The Ma administration’s handling of diplomatic affairs has failed to maximize Taiwan’s gain and minimize potential damages, Nan Fang Shou said, adding that Ma assumed his deceit would win him an opportunity to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at next year’s APEC summit in Beijing.
Asked if Ma’s recent comments underlined the necessity for a constitutional amendment, Nan Fang Shuo said that the true problem did not lie in the Constitution, but in the way Ma and the KMT distorted the Constitution.
“If someone could distort the Constitution like that, amending the Constitution would not be meaningful,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ma yesterday tried to dismiss concerns about his defining cross-strait ties as “not international relations.”
“The Republic of China [ROC] is a sovereign country, and mainland China is part of our territory according to the Constitution. Therefore, our relations with the mainland are not international relations. It is a special relationship,” he said at a meeting with a US delegation led by Wyoming Governor Matt Mead at the Presidential Office.
The president also reiterated his “three noes” policy of no unification, no independence and no use of force in handling cross-strait relations, and said that the government continued to promote cross-strait development under the so-called “1992 consensus.”
He said that cross-strait air routes are neither international flights nor domestic ones, shrugging off concerns about his comparison of US domestic flights to cross-strait flights.
“We’ve defined that the cross-strait air routes are not international ones or domestic ones. They are special flights,” he said.
“Such a definition allows the two sides of the Taiwan Strait to enhance their relations and bring profits to the people from both sides that they did not enjoy in the past,” he said.
Ma cited the signing of the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) and the service trade agreement, and said the cross-strait relations are the most peaceful and stable they have been in the past 60 years.
He also said the nation will continue to seek cooperation with the US in maintaining a sustainable defense force to protect public safety.
TARGETED TEXTS: The center’s head said that visitor numbers at scenic spots were greater than expected and people did not do a very good job of social distancing The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) yesterday sent two warning text messages to urge people to practice social distancing, especially by avoiding crowded scenic areas. The two messages were sent at 11:55am on the third day of the four-day Tomb Sweeping Day weekend, reminding people about social distancing and hand hygiene to help prevent COVID-19 infection. “When visiting crowded scenic spots during the Tomb Sweeping Day weekend, please keep a social distance of at least 1.5m indoors and 1m outdoors, wear a mask and wash your hands frequently. Please wear a mask and seek immediate medical attention if you are feeling ill
There is no need to lock down Taipei, but the International Workers’ Day long weekend from May 1 to 3 should be postponed, a public health researcher said yesterday. Although the spread of COVID-19 in Taiwan has not reached an extent that would necessitate the closure of any area, large crowds that gathered over the Tomb Sweeping Day holiday, which ends today, showed reduced vigilance among some people, National Taiwan University College of Public Health dean Chan Chang-chuan (詹長權) said. This reduced vigilance increases the risk of the virus spreading, Chan said, adding that the government should push back national holidays to
As more schools shift to distance learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, lawmakers in Taipei yesterday urged the Ministry of Education to pay attention to the security risks associated with using the remote conferencing service Zoom. Following reports about privacy and security issues with Zoom, including that it sends data to China, groups such as NASA, the New York City government and the UK’s Ministry of Defence have reportedly banned its use. Zoom founder and chief executive officer Eric Yuan (袁征), a Chinese-American, has apologized, saying that the company would freeze the development of new features and shift its resources to
Seven new cases of COVID-19, including one domestic case, were reported yesterday by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC), which added “diarrhea of unknown cause” to the criteria for reporting suspected cases. Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the center, said the domestic case — the nation’s 352nd — is a man in his 40s who lives alone, did not travel abroad recently and began showing symptoms on Monday. “The man sought treatment for a fever at a clinic on March 30, went to the same clinic again on April 1 for loss of taste and smell, and
RSS