President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is expected to use a forum later this month to respond to the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) latest Taiwan policy, which is expected to be announced at the party’s 19th National Congress, sources said.
Tsai will use rhetoric similar to that of her recent interview with the Central News Agency (CNA) to discuss cross-strait relations in her Double Ten National Day address tomorrow, said a source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
However, she is likely to deliver a speech at a forum in Taipei organized by the Mainland Affairs Council and the Straits Exchange Foundation at the end of this month to respond to pronouncements made during the CCP’s National Congress, which is to be held in Beijing from Wednesday next week through Oct. 25.
In the CNA interview published on Tuesday, Tsai said she hoped the two sides of the Taiwan Strait could create a new model to handle cross-strait relations after the CCP congress.
Speculation that Beijing is planning unification by force have been fueled in recent months by what appear to be increased Chinese military activities targeting Taiwan this year, including multiple full-circle voyages around the nation by Chinese H-6K bombers and the aircraft carrier Liaoning.
The Hong Kong-based Chinese-language magazine Yazhou Zhoukan ran a cover story earlier this month on the possibility of China seeking such unification after the congress.
However, a national security official in Taipei, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said growing calls for forceful unification reflect the opinion of a handful of hawkish and hardline groups, not the mainstream voice in China.
The former director of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences’ Institute of Taiwan Studies, Zhou Zhihuai (周志懷), in July urged a “unification timetable,” but he has not mentioned the topic since, the security source said.
The council has maintained a somewhat sanguine view toward cross-strait development after the congress, despite former American Institute in Taiwan chairman Richard Bush’s prediction that China would introduce a deadline for a resolution on Taiwan during the congress.
The council believes that Beijing is likely to adhere to its previous principles and policies on cross-strait ties, continuing its united-front campaign and exertion of pressure on the nation.
A high-level government official, who also requested anonymity, said there are various predications about how cross-strait relations could evolve after the congress, and the government is monitoring the issue.
“Though it is unwise for the government to make predictions when the CCP’s national congress is just around the corner, the Tsai administration will neither be blindly optimistic nor unreasonably pessimistic,” the official said.
Beijing is unlikely to set a timetable for issues that could raise tension in the Asia-Pacific region, not even on Hong Kong matters, the official said.
The military yesterday showed off its latest domestically produced armored vehicle, the CM-34 Clouded Leopard, at a remote manufacturing site in the nation’s central mountains. Taiwan has been eager to demonstrate its resolve to defend itself should China ever attack. Those fears have become more pronounced over the past few years as Beijing has stepped up military activities near Taiwan. While Taiwan relies on the US for many of its weapons, such as fighter jets, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has been pushing for a greater emphasis on Taiwanese-designed and made armaments, the most high profile of which is new submarines. The eight-wheeled CM-34,
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday denounced Russian President Vladimir Putin for disparaging Taiwan’s sovereignty by saying that Taiwan issues are “China’s internal affairs.” The ministry strongly condemned Putin’s “false” remarks that “undermined the sovereignty of the Republic of China,” ministry spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a news briefing. Xinhua news agency cited Putin as telling Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during a telephone call on Wednesday that Russia opposed any interference from external forces in China’s internal affairs, such as in Xinjiang, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Ou said that Taiwanese elect their government in free and fair elections, adding that only the
‘DEMOCRATIC FISH’: Soichiro Hayashi said he wants to return Taiwan’s kindness after it helped with relief efforts after the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami Japanese fish farmers are ready to help Taiwan after China banned Taiwanese grouper imports, the Sankei Shimbun reported yesterday. The Chinese General Administration of Customs suspended imports of the fish on Monday last week, citing prohibited chemicals and excessive levels of oxytetracycline allegedly found in grouper imports since December last year. Soichiro Hayashi, president of the Hayashi Trout Farm in Japan’s Fukushima Prefecture, is leading the push for Taiwanese grouper imports, the newspaper said. His call has caught the attention of several large sushi chains, the report said. Hayashi, who is the Fukushima branch head of the Friends of Lee Teng-hui Association in Japan,
‘TROJAN HORSE’ SCHEME: The comment that a bridge would allow China’s PLA to easily launch an attack shows ‘a lack of backbone,’ Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je said Critics accused Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) of being oblivious to national security concerns after he proposed constructing a bridge to link Kinmen and China’s Xiamen (廈門). Ko, who is also the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) chairman, made the proposal when presiding over the opening ceremony of the party’s office in Kinmen on Saturday. He said the bridge could solve Kinmen’s population, electricity and garbage problems, as well as serve as a shortcut for leaving or entering Taiwan without traveling via Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport). He also proposed building a hospital in Kinmen to attract people who are seeking medical treatment in
RSS