A Hong Kong official hailed yesterday a trip to Beijing by the director of Taiwan's Kwang Hwa Information and Culture Center in Hong Kong as a "breakthrough" in Taiwan's cultural exchanges with China.
Lu Ping (
"Although Lu visited Beijing as a cultural figure, she is the first director of the center allowed to visit the capital," said Xin Kuishan (
Lu, a renowned writer, waited for months for her Hong Kong visa after being appointed as the center's director amid a hostile cross-strait atmosphere in 2002.
"Lu's trip to Beijing is a breakthrough. It indicates progress in cross-strait cultural exchanges," Xin said. Lu wrapped up her weeklong visit to Beijing and returned to Hong Kong yesterday.
Lu, who traveled with a group of Taiwanese publishers to Beijing, urged Taiwan and China to seek a true understanding of each other through cultural exchanges.
After touring the Beijing International Book Fair with the publishers, Lu told reporters that Chinese and Taiwanese publishers need to work together to create a global market for Chinese books.
"A lot of publishers told me they feel the Western book companies are like great invading armies because they own abundant resources and manpower," Lu said.
Lu said she was touched by Chinese and Taiwanese publishers' efforts to seek ways to work together. "They care about how to cooperate in the Chinese publishing and cultural industry. The publishers have overcome the political issues. ? Cultural exchange can create flexible space amid political tensions and bring more opportunities for peace for Taiwan and China," she added.
Lu said Taiwan and China lack understanding toward each other. "Of course both sides will have conflicts when they don't know much about each other. I hope both sides can have more patience," she said.
Lu, who had visited Beijing before becoming center director, said she was impressed by the rapid development in the city.
"We can expect more changes to happen by the 2008 Olympic Games," she said.
Nevertheless, Beijing, with fast growing infrastructure, needs to pay equal attention to problems such as traffic jams and the preservation of cultural heritage, she said.
"A society will start reflect on its cultural side when its economy grows to a certain degree," Lu added.
Meanwhile, He Guangwei (何光暐), director of China's National Tourism Administration, told representatives of Taiwan's travel agencies yesterday that he plans to invite Minister of Transportation and Communications Lin Ling-san (林陵三) to visit China.
During a banquet with the representatives, He said if Taiwan lifts restrictions on Chinese people traveling to Taiwan, China would immediately permit all its citizens to visit Taiwan.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard