If Beijing wants to get better reactions from the people of Taiwan, it should initiate a more flexible policy toward Taiwan as well as abandon its "one China" principle as a premise for resuming cross-strait dialogue, a group of US academics said in Washington on Tuesday.
They also said that China should show goodwill by allowing Taiwan to enter the World Health Organization (WHO) and to jointly organize some events of the 2008 Olympic Games.
The academics made the comments while attending a seminar sponsored by the Heritage Foundation and the US-Taiwan Business Council.
Richard Bush, former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan and director of the Brookings Institution's Center for Northeast Asia, said that the threat from Beijing has strengthened Taiwan's identity consciousness as well as enlarging the distance between Taiwan and China.
He also said that Beijing's refusal to resume talks with Taiwan when President Chen Shui-bian (
Bush said that it would change the feelings of the people of Taiwan if Beijing would see Taipei's bid for WHO observer status is not an issue of sovereignty and if it would stop preventing Taiwan from joining the organization.
He said other things that Beijing can do include reviewing its "one country, two systems" policy, reducing its threat to Taiwan's security as well as refraining from interfering in the island's internal affairs.
Bonnie Glaser, a research fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that whoever wins the March election, Bei-jing should understand that its current policies -- such as the "one country, two systems" model - -- are not practical and will not be accepted by the people of Taiwan.
She suggested that China should also allow Taiwan to host some events of the 2008 Olympics, saying that this would not only strengthen cross-strait cultural exchanges but would also promote interaction between Taipei and Beijing.
Saying that the most important thing is to resume cross-strait dialogue, Glaser said that Beijing should not use its "one China" principle as a prerequisite for holding cross-strait dialogue, because it will difficult for whoever wins the election to accept such a precondition.
Robert Sutter, a Georgetown University professor, said that he is not optimistic about the possible changes of Beijing's attitude toward Taiwan.
Saying that because of its own inertia, China's leadership will not change its Taiwan policy, Sutter said that Beijing's leaders are not expected to adopt a more flexible policy toward Taiwan at present.
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