The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday called for understanding after receiving complaints about its request that a ceremony for a water supply project between Kinmen and China be postponed.
The Kinmen County Government asked the council to reconsider its request, while opposition politicians criticized the move.
The government this week asked the Kinmen County Government to delay the ceremony for the system — which is to deliver water from China’s Fujian Province to Kinmen — after Beijing pushed the East Asian Olympic Committee to strip Taichung of its right to host the East Asian Youth Games.
Beijing has been employing carrot-and-stick tactics to whitewash its attempts to squeeze Taiwan’s space for survival and development, and to undermine its national dignity and interests, the council said.
“On the one hand, it suppresses and belittles us, and on the other hand, it tries to show our people friendly gestures... This is utterly unacceptable,” it said, adding that the unveiling ceremony should be held at a more appropriate time.
Due to Kinmen’s limited water supply, the Executive Yuan in April 2013 approved a plan to allow the island to diversify its water sources, paving the way for a deal between the Straits Exchange Foundation and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits in June of that year that the Chinese province would provide water to Kinmen.
According to the deal, Kinmen is to maintain its self-sufficiency at 70 percent and will be responsible for filtering and purifying the water provided by China.
Upon completion of the project and trial operations, the Kinmen County Government and Chinese authorities reached an agreement to hold separate unveiling ceremonies on Sunday next week, one in Kinmen and one in China.
However, the MAC stepped in.
“Although it is a good thing for both sides to be working to solve Kinmen’s water problem, Beijing’s increasing suppression of Taiwan in the international arena, most notably the Games incident, has driven up [anti-China] sentiment in society and cast cross-strait relations in a negative light,” MAC Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said on Thursday.
Now is not an opportune time to hold the ceremony, Chiu said, urging Kinmen to “look at the big picture.”
Later on Thursday, Kinmen issued a statement asking the central government to reconsider its stance, saying the islands are in urgent need of water from China, because the water in its lakes and reservoirs could only sustain residents for another 118 days.
The council said that even without a ceremony, the system could still become operational as scheduled.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Culture and Communications Committee deputy director-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) called on the Democratic Progressive Party administration to refrain from punishing Taiwanese for its failure to manage cross-strait ties.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique