The Minister of Foreign Affairs said yesterday he would welcome more extensive bilateral talks with China at the APEC meeting under way in Suzhou, China.
Tien Hung-mao (田弘茂) told an audience at Harvard University that a meeting set for yesterday between finance ministers from Taiwan and China should help deepen ties.
"If for instance, when our ministers attend the APEC meeting in China, and should Beijing decide that they will welcome some kind of bilateral meeting while our ministers are there, I can tell you that we would welcome that," Tien said.
The meeting in Suzhou follows recommendations by the Economic Development Advisory Conference on Aug. 26 that Taipei hold talks with Beijing on opening direct trade, transportation and postal ties within the framework of the WTO.
China has ruled out direct-trade links with Taiwan unless Taipei recognizes its "one China" principle, but Beijing has given a cautious welcome to moves by Taiwan to promote greater economic integration.
"For several years now there has been a breakdown in official contact between both sides. And it is no secret that the United States, as well as Taiwan, thought that there ought to be some kind of political contact," Tien said.
"And I'm sure that China also wants the resumption of dialogue to take place except that it puts on certain kinds of preconditions that so far are unacceptable to us."
The meeting between China's finance minister and his Taiwan counterpart will be the highest-level meeting between the two political rivals since Taipei called for dropping its decades-old ban on direct-trade links.
But Tien said the meeting was just what would normally be accorded any minister from an APEC country and noted that Beijing had promised to treat Taiwanese officials like any other attendees at the meeting.
In his prepared remarks on Taiwan's foreign policy, Tien said Taipei's top priority "must be to step up our efforts to maintain the current balance of power in order to stabilize the region and keep the peace."
Tien said that Taiwan was committed to developing friendly ties with democracies around the world, despite Beijing's campaign to deprive it of diplomatic recognition.
"Like the classic examples, Finland with the Soviet Union and Israel with the Arab world, we are relatively small but a democratic and free-market country -- a David facing a Goliath."
Tien pledged that Taiwan would remain "engaged in a struggle for survival in the face of the threat of force that [China] hangs over our heads."
Tien was traveling in the US after visiting several Caribbean nations. The Chinese Embassy in Washington has objected in the past to senior Taiwanese officials visiting the US.
"We have a consistent position of opposing such visits to the United States by senior Taiwan officials," a spokesman for the Chinese embassy said.
A US State Department official played down the controversy.
"There have been visits to the United States by this man and his predecessors on a number of occasions ... so there's nothing new or unusual or unprecedented about this," the official said.
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
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
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