China said yesterday it was "seriously concerned" about Taiwan's passage of a referendum law, but didn't say what action it might take over the legislation, which officials earlier warned might lead to war.
A statement by China's Taiwan Affairs Office said Beijing was "closely monitoring" the situation and warned against trying to use the law to pursue formal independence.
"We are seriously concerned about the situation regarding the `referendum law,'" said the statement carried by the official Xinhua News Agency.
"We resolutely oppose anyone using the `referendum law' to conduct `Taiwan independence' and separatist activities," it said. "If anyone tries to separate Taiwan from China, we will absolutely not tolerate it."
Despite weeks of increasingly menacing warnings from Beijing, Taiwan's lawmakers on Thursday voted to let the president call a referendum on independence if China attacks. An official in charge of China's Taiwan policy was quoted by state media this month as warning against passage of the law, saying: "Taiwanese independence means war."
However, the statement by the Taiwan Affairs Office -- the only official Chinese response so far -- didn't mention military action or any other specific response. Earlier yesterday, state media quoted Chinese analysts warning that Taiwan has risked angering Beijing.
"The referendum law has created a legal basis for Taiwanese independence, which the mainland strongly opposes," the Chinese-language media quoted Liu Guoshen, director of the Taiwan Research Institute at Xiamen University in eastern China, as saying.
Liu was quoted as expressing relief that the referendum law places limits on such votes.
"That suggests there is still a rational force on the island that opposes radical moves to undermine cross-strait ties by promoting independence referendums," Liu said.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai