A member of the EU's cross-strait think tank, Professor Werner Pfennig, yesterday delivered an impassioned plea to China to stop threatening Taiwan's people and to start thinking differently about cross-strait relations.
"No matter how much China suffered in the past, all this is no justification in the 21st century to humiliate and threaten people in Taiwan," he said.
Apart from his role in the EU think tank, Pfennig is also a professor at Freie University Berlin's department of political science. He was invited to present his paper on cross-strait relations in Taipei yesterday, during which he encouraged Chinese leaders to propose new ideas about handling cross-strait matters.
Pfennig was invited to Taiwan by the Peacetime Foundation of Taiwan because he was one of the drafters of a statement by the European Parliament that contained many words of support for Taiwan.
The Peacetime Foundation's executive director, Chien Hsi-chieh
"We believe that cross-strait peace and the stability of economic development in the Asian region is in the mutual interest of all nations," said Chien.
In his speech, which he delivered to a group of students and scholars at the seminar, Pfennig said: "[The] `One China' [concept] can only be applied to the past, to culture, language, memories and many other things. It can serve as a vision for the future but how can it apply to the present? Normalization is not possible without the acceptance of the status quo."
He stressed that Chinese authorities are realistic in terms of economics. In that regard, China has been pushing for reforms and managed to double the growth of its economy over the past 10 years, he said.
However, in the political arena, Pfennig considered Chinese leaders to be "unrealistic."
"One big problem of Chinese leaders is that they made some wrong assessments about relations between Taiwan and China. They for a long time over-estimated the New Party and underestimated the Democratic Progressive Party ? It took leaders on the mainland a long time to understand the significance of Chen Shui-bian's
Echoing Pfennig's view, Kuo Chien-Chung
"Most countries have so far not recognized Taiwan as a nation. If Taiwan is not accepted in most international organizations, how can it develop normal relations with China?" Kuo asked.
He explained that normal relations had gradually been established between divided nations such as North and South Korea as well as East and West Germany, because all those countries had been accepted as members of the UN.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
Temperatures are forecast to drop steadily as a continental cold air mass moves across Taiwan, with some areas also likely to see heavy rainfall, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. From today through early tomorrow, a cold air mass would keep temperatures low across central and northern Taiwan, and the eastern half of Taiwan proper, with isolated brief showers forecast along Keelung’s north coast, Taipei and New Taipei City’s mountainous areas and eastern Taiwan, it said. Lows of 11°C to 15°C are forecast in central and northern Taiwan, Yilan County, and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties, and 14°C to 17°C
RSS