The media were shut out of yesterday’s meeting between China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) and New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), which had been scheduled to be held before cameras.
Instead, Zhang and Chu met for 40 minutes behind closed doors.
A city official, who was not authorized to speak for the city government, told the Taipei Times that the TAO demanded that the Zhang-Chu talk be held away from cameras to prevent a possible reccurrence of what it called the “[Greater Tainan Mayor] William Lai (賴清德) incident in Shanghai,” referring to Lai’s statement during a visit to Shanghai that the future of Taiwan is a matter to be determined by its 23 million people.
Photo: Sam Yet, AFP
Zhang made a few short remarks after the meeting without taking questions from reporters, as he has done since arriving on Wednesday.
He praised the facilities in Tucheng (土城) and Sijhih (汐止) districts that provide care services for elderly people and children that he visited earlier in the day.
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait should promote exchanges in the fields of care services for the elderly and children, Zhang said, adding that the focus of future cross-strait economic cooperation should be extended to small and medium-sized (SMEs) enterprises without overlooking the needs of big businesses.
Photo: CNA
Zhang later visiting the Vigor Kobo bakery, where he sat down with several SME leaders, along with Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) and Economic Development Director Yeh Hui-ching (葉惠青).
“I am here to listen to what SMEs [businesspeople] have to say, your ideas and suggestions, hoping that this would be helpful to promote cross-strait economic and trade exchanges and to benefit SME,” Zhang told the business leaders.
Zhang said the potential for SMEs on both sides of the strait was “unlimited,” as long as both sides take the right path of cooperation.
The discussions focused on difficulties that SME entrepreneurs said they have encountered when investing in China.
Zhang then headed to Wulai (烏來), where he met Aboriginal representatives and promised some elderly Atayals that China would do more to promote Aboriginal villages in Taiwan as tourism destinations for Chinese tourists.
Zhang’s engagements with elderly people, children, SMEs leaders and some Atayals were open to a small number of “lucky” journalists.
On several occasions, reporters squabbled with council officials and police officers they said were impeding them from doing their job.
At the nursing center in Tucheng, the council and the city government initially insisted that only six of the 26 reporters who arrived on a bus provided by the council for the media covering Zhang’s visit would be allowed inside the center when Zhang and the mayor chatted with residents over lunch.
The officials only backed off after the repeated arguments with reporters.
Zhang also held a closed-door discussion last night with about 11 academics, mostly well-known unification activists, including New Revolutionary Alliance (新同盟會) president Hsu Li-nong (許歷農), a retired general, and Shih Hsin University professor Wang Hsiao-po (王曉波).
CARROT AND STICK: While unrelenting in its military threats, China attracted nearly 40,000 Taiwanese to over 400 business events last year Nearly 40,000 Taiwanese last year joined industry events in China, such as conferences and trade fairs, supported by the Chinese government, a study showed yesterday, as Beijing ramps up a charm offensive toward Taipei alongside military pressure. China has long taken a carrot-and-stick approach to Taiwan, threatening it with the prospect of military action while reaching out to those it believes are amenable to Beijing’s point of view. Taiwanese security officials are wary of what they see as Beijing’s influence campaigns to sway public opinion after Taipei and Beijing gradually resumed travel links halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the scale of
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
Pope Francis is be laid to rest on Saturday after lying in state for three days in St Peter’s Basilica, where the faithful are expected to flock to pay their respects to history’s first Latin American pontiff. The cardinals met yesterday in the Vatican’s synod hall to chart the next steps before a conclave begins to choose Francis’ successor, as condolences poured in from around the world. According to current norms, the conclave must begin between May 5 and 10. The cardinals set the funeral for Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square, to be celebrated by the dean of the College
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
RSS