President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday dismissed a news report claiming that he informed the US of his plans to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) just four days ahead of time, saying that Washington was given five days’ notice.
“We notified the US government five days before the meeting and it expressed appreciation for our early notice and the ‘zero accidents’ in our relations,” Ma said while meeting with officials of Lions Club International District 300G2 at the Presidential Office in Taipei.
Ma said that his administration would never let the US learn about such a development from the media, adding that Washington welcomed and supported his decision.
Photo: CNA
His comments came one day after the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) published an exclusive story that cited a “credible source” as saying that Ma’s administration had only notified the US government of the Xi meeting via the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) on Nov. 3.
The article said that Japan was told the following day, while Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman and presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) also learned about it later because he is not part of Ma’s decisionmaking inner circle.
Ma said that the purpose of the Singapore meeting on Nov. 7 was to maintain peace and the “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait and to create wealth for people from both sides of the Strait to share.
“Peace across the Strait is the foundation of everything. Without peace, there will be no prosperity. That is why I have endeavored to strengthen cross-strait peace for the past seven years,” Ma said.
The meeting conveyed a message to the world that both sides of the Strait are committed to maintaining peace, which has a significant impact on regional and global levels, he said.
The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ comment a few days ago that it was willing to host a similar meeting in the future was also a positive sign, the president said.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
Japan and the Philippines yesterday signed a defense pact that would allow the tax-free provision of ammunition, fuel, food and other necessities when their forces stage joint training to boost deterrence against China’s growing aggression in the region and to bolster their preparation for natural disasters. Japan has faced increasing political, trade and security tensions with China, which was angered by Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s remark that a Chinese attack on Taiwan would be a survival-threatening situation for Japan, triggering a military response. Japan and the Philippines have also had separate territorial conflicts with Beijing in the East and South China
RSS