Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said that when he talked about “one China” during his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), he was referring to the Republic of China (ROC).
Chu has been criticized over his opening remarks in a meeting with Xi in Beijing on Monday, in which he described the so-called “1992 consensus” by saying that both sides “belong to one China, but with each side ascribing different contents and definitions to the concept of ‘one China.’”
Taiwanese opposition parties accused Chu of making concessions on national sovereignty by recasting the “1992 consensus” under Beijing’s “one China” framework.
Photo: Lai Hsiao-tung, Taipei Times
Chu, who returned to Taiwan early yesterday after a three-day visit to China, said that his phrase “belong to one China,” according to the ROC Constitution, meant “belong to the ROC” — with each side ascribing a different content and definition to “one China.”
Chu added that during his meeting with Xi, he mentioned Taiwan’s history over the past century, as a way to help Beijing understand the existence of different voices in Taiwan and the importance of the two sides agreeing to disagree.
Chu also said the KMT has “expressed a stern protest against and demanded the retraction of” a report by The Associated Press (AP) that said Chu “reaffirmed the party’s support for eventual unification with the mainland” when meeting Xi.
In the article, which AP ran under the headline: “In China, Taiwan party leader calls for more global access,” Chu was reported to have “affirmed his party’s support for eventual unification with the mainland,” according to the KMT.
The report has been widely cited by local media outlets.
In response to reporters’ questions about the AP report, Chu said a protest had been filed with the news agency and a retraction demanded.
“There is no need for some media to maliciously distort or interpret [the meeting or the report] out of context,” Chu said. “We do not have to be trapped by the 1992 consensus, but can look for regional economic cooperation and participation in international organizations, and emphasize how to empower our young people and support small and medium-sized enterprises.”
Late on Monday night, the KMT released a brief statement accusing AP reporter Christopher Bodeen of having made a “serious mistake” in reporting that Chu “reaffirmed his support for eventual unification with the mainland.”
KMT spokesperson Yang Wei-chung (楊偉中) called the report “illusory and inconsistent with the facts,” saying that Chu has “never held such a view and did not talk about issues of unification during the mainland visit.”
The party released another statement yesterday morning asking local media outlets “not to misquote” the article because the AP has since retracted “the report with incorrect content.”
KMT spokesperson Lin Yi-hua (林奕華) said that Bodeen had edited the article, removing the remarks that asserted Chu had reaffirmed his support for an eventual union with China.
The edited report said that Chu affirmed his party’s support for “a consensus reached between Chinese and Taiwanese negotiators in 1992 that is interpreted by Beijing as a commitment to an eventual unification,” the KMT said.
PRICE STABILIZATION: The Ministry of Economic Affairs has urged the legislature to support the Cabinet’s supplementary budget for state-owned energy companies State-owned oil supplier CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) on Saturday announced that it would raise domestic gasoline prices by NT$0.7 (US$0.02) per liter and diesel prices by NT$0.6 per liter this week after international crude oil prices rose above US$100 per barrel last week. Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) yesterday said that it matched CPC’s price adjustments for this week. The decisions end a six-week period during which CPC and Formosa kept fuel prices in Taiwan unchanged. Retail gasoline prices this week would rise to NT$31.2, NT$32.7 and NT$34.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively at CPC
‘GLOBAL WARNING’: The infiltration is not just a local problem, as Beijing has been deploying the same tactics worldwide against Western democracies, a report said Between 50,000 and 100,000 Chinese spies are operating in Taiwan, far more than the National Security Bureau’s previous estimate of 5,000, German journalist and author Jurgen Kremb said on Monday. Kremb presented his research, titled “The War of Spies: How China’s Intelligence Services Are Infiltrating Taiwan — and What Europe Must Learn from It,” at a joint event held by the Taiwan offices of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the European Values Center for Security Policy. The report was published in June in the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau’s Prospect & Exploration Monthly (展望與探索月刊). By spies, he said he was referring to informants,
More than 100 Taiwanese-Americans, Taiwanese lawmakers and members of civic groups on Saturday marched through New York City to call for Taiwan’s participation in the UN, with Marshall Island Permanent Representative to the UN John Silk joining the event to show support. Participants chanted: “UN for Taiwan” and “Keep Taiwan Free” as they marched through central Manhattan, passing Times Square and Bryant Park before ending near the New York Public Library. The annual march brought together Taiwanese community groups from across the US East Coast. Silk expressed hope that Taiwan would one day be able to participate in UN meetings
Two aides at independent Legislator May Chin’s (高金素梅) office were ordered detained incommunicado yesterday in a broadening probe into alleged Chinese espionage by Chin’s former chief of staff, Chang Chun-chieh (張俊傑). The move to hold Lin I-chun (林怡君) and current chief of staff Chen Chih-huang (陳智葟) in custody came four days after Chang, indicted on corruption charges, cut off his electronic monitoring wristband and jumped bail. The High Prosecutors’ Office said that it believes Chang had developed a Chinese spy ring, which might have operated for more than a decade, with funding from China, and that Lin and Chen were suspected of
RSS