At a news conference after the closing of China’s annual National People’s Congress legislative session in Beijing yesterday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (李克強) promised that China would prioritize Taiwan as Beijing opens to the world, and that it would continue to protect the interests of Taiwanese businesses in China.
“We will continue to protect the legitimate rights and interests of Taiwan-funded enterprises and Taiwan businesspeople on the mainland, and provide proper preferential policies to them,” Li said, when asked to comment on problems that Taiwanese businesses encounter in China.
To enhance cross-strait economic cooperation, Li said that “two wheels should be put in motion.”
Photo: AFP
“One is to enhance institution-building, for example, to continue to pursue follow-up talks on the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, and the other wheel is about further mutual opening-up,” he said.
However, Li said that such economic cooperation should be built on political foundations.
“People on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are members of one big family, as long as we continue to adhere to the ‘one China’ principle and the ‘1992 consensus,’ to oppose the Taiwan independence movement, and uphold peaceful development for cross-strait relations,” the premier said.
The so-called “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted he had fabricated in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Beijing that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation.
Li also extended his invitation to young Taiwanese — who have drawn Beijing’s attention since the Sunflower movement last year — to start businesses in China.
“We welcome people from Taiwan businesses, particularly young people, to pursue their careers in the mainland, and enhance personnel exchanges,” Li said, which would help to “bring the hearts and minds of people on both sides of the Strait even closer to each other.”
The Mainland Affairs Council released a statement in response to Li’s remarks.
“The ‘1992 consensus,’ which allows both sides of the Taiwan Strait to make its own interpretation on ‘one China,’ is the foundation for institutionalized cross-strait interactions and exchanges,” the council said. “We call on China to face reality in cross-strait relations, fully understand Taiwanese people’s views and push for realistic, peaceful and stable developments between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.”
The council also recognized China’s recent reform efforts, adding that it expects China to show its determination about the reforms — while allowing citizens to participate — to enhance life for people on both sides of the Strait, it added.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS