Amid a recent rush by lawmakers to visit China to conduct so-called "track-two" communications, the New Party caucus at the Legislative Yuan yesterday announced that it is sending a delegation to China on July 9 to exchange views with Beijing officials on political issues.
New Party caucus convener Elmer Fung (
"We hope to conduct direct dialogue [with Beijing] on how both sides of the Taiwan Strait can reach reconciliation and seek a resolution that is acceptable to both sides," Fung said.
Fung said the delegation will arrive in Beijing on July 9, proceed to Shanghai on July 12 and return to Taiwan on July 14. However, Fung said that under an agreement reached with Beijing the details of the itinerary will be kept secret until the delegates arrive, but revealed that they will "meet with people whom they should meet."
In addition to the pro-unification New Party, known for its close contacts with China, a number of lawmakers from other political parties are also planning to lead delegations to China. They include members of two KMT subgroups, the Taiwan Unified Alliance (台聯會) and the Generation-E Alliance (e世代問政聯盟). Even politicians from the Mainstream Alliance (主流聯盟), a subgroup consisting of major DPP factions, are arranging a trip to China.
Legislators from the People First Party also plan to visit China. Chen Horng-chi (
"In the past most Taiwanese delegations [visiting China] were pro-unification hardliners, and thus the true voice of the Taiwanese people was not really heard," Chen said.
Chen said Taiwan needs to keep a channel of communication open through these representatives while official dialogue remains suspended.
"Otherwise, cross-strait misunderstanding and hatred will deepen," Chen said. "Hopefully such contacts will build up an atmosphere of peace to pave the way for the restoration of cross-strait talks."
DPP legislator Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), who is arranging the Mainstream Alliance's visit to China, said the group hopes to meet with Beijing officials during the trip, but it has not yet obtained an invitation from China.
"If the issues we plan to talk about are too sensitive, there will be a lot of uncertainties involved," Cho said.
Just as establishing contacts with China is becoming a trend among legislators, some members of the DPP are hesitant about the move.
DPP legislator Wong Chin-chu (
Chen said such worries were unnecessary, because the visits are not intended to replace the role of the government.
"In any case, if there are any proposals coming out of these trips the administrative branch still has the final say upon whether to accept it," Chen said.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
NEW LOW: The council in 2024 based predictions on a pessimistic estimate for the nation’s total fertility rate of 0.84, but last year that rate was 0.69, 17 percent lower An expected National Development Council (NDC) report expects the nation’s population to drop below 12 million by 2065, with the old-age dependency ratio to top 100 percent sooner than 2070, sources said yesterday. The council is slated to release its latest population projections in August, using an ultra-low fertility model, the sources said. The previous report projected that Taiwan’s population would fall to 14.37 million by 2070, but based on a new estimate of the total fertility rate (TFR) — the average number of children born to a woman over her lifetime — the population is expected to reach 12 million by
RSS