Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday the government and the DPP must discuss whether the DPP's 1999 resolution on Taiwan's future (台灣前途決議文), which explicitly asserts that Taiwan is an independent state called the "Republic of China," can become government policy.
"An interim period is required for discussion as to whether the resolution can serve as a guideline for policy making or even practicable policy in its own right," Tsai said.
"The government must discuss the issue with the DPP and follow the president's instructions," she added.
Tsai made the remarks at a meeting with more than 140 legislative assistants at a two-day cross-strait affairs lecture and seminar program, which finished yesterday.
The DPP government's approach to cross-strait affairs is to maintain the status quo by not changing Taiwan's status either by declaring independence or seeking reunification.
Tsai told the Legislative Yuan in the last legislative session, "Our policy is neutral. We never think about independence and we never think about unification. We only think about how to manage relations smoothly."
President Chen Shui-bian (
The resolution declares that Taiwan is an independent sovereign state whose name is the "Republic of China."
Any changes regarding this independent status, it holds, must be collectively determined by all people in Taiwan through a public referendum.
Tsai's remark followed questions from legislative assistants about her opinion of Chen's statements.
"We have to consider subjective and objective factors as well as the interim and long term strategies of cross-strait affairs when responding to Chen's remarks," she said.
As to whether the National Unification Guidelines (
"Because of the change in circumstances [since the guidelines were drawn up], it is impractical to treat the guidelines as inviolable."
The guidelines were proposed by the KMT government in 1991 as a blueprint for Taiwan's reunification with China.
In related news, during a separate weekly news briefing, MAC Vice Chairman Jonathan Liu (
Chinese Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation announced on Thursday that it will initiate an anti-dumping investigation on phenol exported from Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and the US to China.
Prior to the move, China notified the delegations of the four countries on Tuesday, in accordance with WTO rules .
This is the third time that China has initiated an anti-dumping investigation regarding Taiwan, but the first time that it has contacted the country under the WTO framework.
But the notification referred to "Chung-kuo Taipei (中國台北)" instead of the name under which Taiwan is formally registered in the organization -- The Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu (台澎金馬個別關稅領域).
In response to China's move, Liu said that it was "quite appropriate" for China to contact Taiwan via the WTO framework since the two sides are members of the organization.
But he added, "It is inappropriate for China to unilaterally change Taiwan's name."
"We expect to interact with China through such international economic organizations. Even though the name China used is not appropriate, it will not influence how the government will protect the rights of related companies in terms of dealing with the probe," Liu said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,