Jiang Zemin's (江澤民) decision to transfer power over the military to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) came as a surprise to the governments of both Taiwan and the US, Taiwan's top national security official said yesterday.
He added that officials are monitoring what roles heavyweights in Jiang's faction will serve in the future.
"According to information collected by the top government intelligence system and passed from the US government, there have been intense power struggles between Jiang and Hu recently and heavyweights on both sides refused to make any concessions," said Chiou I-jen (
He stressed that China's main policy on Taiwan will not change immediately after Hu's succession to Jiang's position. The important effect, he said, is that the international community will likely be able to more clearly judge Beijing's movements following Hu's consolidation of power.
Jiang announced his retirement from the post of chairman of the Central Military Commission of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on Sunday during the Fourth Central Members Assembly of the CCP's 16th Party Congress.
Hu's succession to head of the military commission comes after a lengthy leadership transition that began in November 2002, when he replaced Jiang as party head. He then took over from Jiang as president in March last year.
Meanwhile, Bonnie Glaser, a consultant on Asian affairs and senior associate of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, echoed Chiou's point of view, saying that Jiang's final retirement came as a surprise to most analysts.
Even more unexpected, she said, was that Zeng Qinghong (曾慶紅), who has been regarded as Jiang's right hand, was not appointed vice chairman of the Central Military Commission.
As to whether, over time, there will be any change in China's approach or policy toward Taiwan, Glaser commented that it remains to be seen.
"First, [Hu] is part of a collective leadership -- Hu Jintao is not a Mao or a Deng and must consult with his colleagues," Glaser said. "Second, public opinion is fiercely nationalistic on the Taiwan question and no leader can be seen as soft toward Taiwan."
Third, she said, it is difficult for China's leaders to renounce the policies that they have inherited toward Taiwan -- "one country, two systems", the "one China" principle and Jiang's "eight points."
Glaser stressed that so far there is also no evidence to indicate Hu supports a different policy or approach toward Taiwan.
"Hu has been quite cautious and allowed Jiang to retain control over policy toward Taiwan," Glaser said.
Glaser claimed that it will take time to see whether Hu would favor a new strategy.
"As long as Jiang is alive, I think Hu will continue to be cautious and patient."
Glaser indicated that leaders on both sides of the Taiwan Strait may have to seize this crucial period to further express goodwill, probe for flexibility and seek channels of dialogue.
"If he [Hu] makes a wrong move, he could be vulnerable," she said.
"Taiwan should take this opportunity to signal [China] that it is ready to work toward a brighter future for the people on both sides of the Strait," Glaser said.
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