The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday called on China to be consistent with its definition of the "one China" principle.
"Both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be consistent in their description and statements," MAC Vice Chairman Jonathon Liu (
The MAC does not wish to see Beijing suffocating Taiwan in the international community at a time when the two sides are working to build stable cross-strait relations, Liu said.
According to Liu, at the Chinese Communist Party's 16th National Congress in November, Beijing stated a three-part theory with respect to "one China."
The theory states that "there is only one China in the world, both mainland China and Taiwan belong to this one China, and the sovereignty and territory of China are inalienable," Liu said.
"However, Beijing continues to tell the international community that the People's Republic of China is the only legitimate government of China," Liu said.
Liu pointed to a China-Russia joint declaration signed during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Beijing in December as an example of this practice at work.
The joint declaration, issued after the summit between Chinese President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) and Putin, states that "the Russian side reiterates that the government of the People's Republic of China is the only legitimate government representing the whole of China, and Taiwan is an integral part of the Chinese territory. Russia will not form any official relations or have official exchanges with Taiwan."
Liu called on China to be consistent with its definition of "one China" as Taiwan wishes to improve cross-strait relations.
In related news, legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said yesterday that the government should publish its assessments of major issues regarding bilateral exchanges across the Taiwan Strait for comment in the legislature.
Wang said the government should have wrapped up its assessments on whether it should open direct links with China and on whether it should permit Taiwan-based chipmakers to invest in eight-inch wafer plants there. He urged government agencies to publish the results to allow lawmakers to better understand the issues.
According to Wang, the government should provide concrete figures or arguments to help lawmakers formulate good policy. As for the impact of such a move, he said this should be decided by legislators.
The government has come under strong pressure to respond to the issues of direct links and cross-strait investment amid increasing exchanges between the two sides.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater