The government will not apply for membership in the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) if Beijing insists that Taiwan is subject to an article relating to applicants without sovereignty or rights to exercise external relations, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a statement yesterday after the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) voiced concerns about a membership bid.
Without naming the DPP, the council said that those who allege the government would compromise the nation’s sovereignty to apply to join the AIIB by going through China have denigrated themselves.
DPP officials earlier in the day had told a news conference in Taipei — held one day after 50 of the AIIB’s 57 founding members signed the bank’s articles of agreement in a ceremony in Beijing — that the government should report to the legislature before it files an application to join the bank.
Photo: AFP
The DPP and others have voiced concerns that the government’s plan to submit a membership application would have to go through China to the organization’s secretariat in Beijing.
“There is no room for compromise or negotiation when it comes to sovereignty. The government should be subject to legislative supervision in its handling of the application,” DPP spokesperson Juan Chao-hsiung (阮昭雄) told the news conference.
Relevant government units should conduct a thorough evaluation of an application bid and present it to the legislature for deliberation, Juan said.
Section 3 of Article 3 of the agreement was designed to apply to Taiwan, as well as Hong Kong and Macau, Juan said.
A copy of the articles posted on the bank’s Web site shows that the paragraph was “phrased with clear intent to denigrate the status of Taiwan,” he said.
The clause at issue reads: “In the case of an applicant which is not sovereign or not responsible for the conduct of its international relations, application for membership in the Bank shall be presented or agreed by the member of the Bank responsible for its international relations.”
However, the council said critics have “wrongly applied the article” and it was a “manifestation of self-denigration” to place Taiwan in the category covered by the clause, it said.
“The Republic of China [ROC] is a sovereign nation and there is no way that we would accept the application of Section 3 of Article 3 to our case,” the council said.
“We stand firm on the position that we would not join the AIIB if the application is to be processed in accordance with the article,” it said.
The council said that the government would file an application “in its capacity as a member of the Asian Development Bank” (ADB), but would not accept the designation “Taipei,China” — which it has been forced to use in the ADB since 1986. (Editor’s note: The government insisted on “Taipei,China” without a space between the two words to indicate its displeasure with the name change.)
The ROC was a founding member of the ADB, which was established in 1966.
Its designation was changed in 1986 when China was admitted to the Manila-based organization. After two years of boycotting the ADB’s annual meeting, Taiwan resumed participation in 1988, but the nation’s delegation has continued to make known that the unilateral alteration of its membership designation was “under protest.”
Asked if the reason the council would apply for AIIB membership “in the capacity of an ADB member,” instead of as a nation using the name “Chinese Taipei” (the government’s bottom line in terms of designation), was that it would allow Taipei and Beijing to have their own respective interpretations of whether the application would be subject to Section 3 of Article 3, the council did not respond.
RESTAURANT POISONING? Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang at a press conference last night said this was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan An autopsy discovered bongkrekic acid in a specimen collected from a person who died from food poisoning after dining at the Malaysian restaurant chain Polam Kopitiam, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said at a news conference last night. It was the first time bongkrekic acid was detected in Taiwan, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝) said. The testing conducted by forensic specialists at National Taiwan University was facilitated after a hospital voluntarily offered standard samples it had in stock that are required to test for bongkrekic acid, he said. Wang told the news conference that testing would continue despite
The government is aiming to recruit 1,096 foreign English teachers and teaching assistants this year, the Ministry of Education said yesterday. The foreign teachers would work closely with elementary and junior-high instructors to create and teach courses, ministry official Tsai Yi-ching (蔡宜靜) said. Together, they would create an immersive language environment, helping to motivate students while enhancing the skills of local teachers, she said. The ministry has since 2021 been recruiting foreign teachers through the Taiwan Foreign English Teacher Program, which offers placement, salary, housing and other benefits to eligible foreign teachers. Two centers serving northern and southern Taiwan assist in recruiting and training
WIDE NET: Health officials said they are considering all possibilities, such as bongkrekic acid, while the city mayor said they have not ruled out the possibility of a malicious act of poisoning Two people who dined at a restaurant in Taipei’s Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 last week have died, while four are in intensive care, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. All of the outlets of Malaysian vegetarian restaurant franchise Polam Kopitiam have been ordered to close pending an investigation after 11 people became ill due to suspected food poisoning, city officials told a news conference in Taipei. The first fatality, a 39-year-old man who ate at the restaurant on Friday last week, died of kidney failure two days later at the city’s Mackay Memorial Hospital. A 66-year-old man who dined
‘CARRIER KILLERS’: The Tuo Chiang-class corvettes’ stealth capability means they have a radar cross-section as small as the size of a fishing boat, an analyst said President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday presided over a ceremony at Yilan County’s Suao Harbor (蘇澳港), where the navy took delivery of two indigenous Tuo Chiang-class corvettes. The corvettes, An Chiang (安江) and Wan Chiang (萬江), along with the introduction of the coast guard’s third and fourth 4,000-tonne cutters earlier this month, are a testament to Taiwan’s shipbuilding capability and signify the nation’s resolve to defend democracy and freedom, Tsai said. The vessels are also the last two of six Tuo Chiang-class corvettes ordered from Lungteh Shipbuilding Co (龍德造船) by the navy, Tsai said. The first Tuo Chiang-class vessel delivered was Ta Chiang (塔江)