The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it would demand a correction after a Chinese-language report by Deutsche Welle (DW) quoted President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) as saying he aims to learn from the experience of East Germany and West Germany in handling bilateral relations and “their ultimate unification.”
The story was picked up by Taiwanese media outlets, which raised questions whether Ma was pushing for a similar unification between Taiwan and China.
The president met Beijing-based correspondents for Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), German newspaper Allgemeine Zeitung and French newspaper Le Figaro at the Presidential Office on Monday.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
The meeting was first described as a “joint interview,” but Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Vanessa Shih (史亞平) yesterday said that it was not a “special interview,” but a “meeting with the media.”
According to DW’s Chinese-lanugage report and a German report by the DPA, Ma told the reporters that there is something to learn from the two German states’ handling of their bilateral relationship for the rapprochement between Taiwan and China. Bilateral communication led to the signing of the Basic Treaty in 1972 between West Germany and East Germany, and “it was a good step,” Ma was quoted as saying.
Ma was referring to the Permanent Mission set up by the Federal Republic of Germany in the German Democratic Republic, which he believed to be similarly possible between Taiwan and China, where mutual representative offices could be set up, the reports said.
However, the relationship between the two German states, which was based on the principle of “two states, one nation,” cannot be directly applied to the cross-strait situation, Ma reportedly said.
That is because the cross-strait relationship is not a “state-to-state” relationship, but neither is it an “in-state” relationship, Ma reportedly said.
“It’s a relationship that has until now never existed before in history,” he was quoted as saying.
However, the DPA’s English-language report on the meeting did not include any reference to Ma talking about the two German states as a model; instead, it focused on Ma’s hope to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Beijing in November.
Neither did the DPA report in German mention the word “unification” — unlike DW’s Chinese report, which led with the statement that according to Ma: “He is willing to learn from how the two German states handled their bilateral relationship and achieved ultimate unification.”
“What the president was underlining was the peace that could be maintained by the setting up of mutual representative offices, as was done in the two German states,” Shih said yesterday.
“And the ultimate unification he referred to was one between the two German states, not that [Taiwan and China] are going to achieve unification via the German model,” she added.
Shih said the report was “mistaken and came up with its own interpretation” of what the president was talking about.
“Because DW’s report is in Chinese, our media have therefore also transcribed the mistake,” she said.
Shih said the Presidential Office is working on a word-by-word transcript of the talk and the ministry would demand a correction from DW when the transcript is completed.
Despite the clarification, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Hsiao Bi-kim (蕭美琴) slammed Ma’s denial of the similarities between the relationship between the two German states and that between Taiwan and China, calling it the president’s “self-denial” of the possibility that Taiwan and China could “join international organizations side by side.”
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS