Premier Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday he will promote Taiwan's sovereignty by demanding the government refer to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in official documents as "China."
Yu made the remarks when questioned by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) yesterday in the Legislative Yuan.
Shen said to Yu that official government documents never referred to the PRC as the PRC, and asked Yu whether it was negligent for the government not to do so.
Yu responded by saying that he had started to address PRC as China recently.
"At least since President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) second term began, I have addressed the country on the other side of the Taiwan Strait as China," Yu said. "I also demand, from now on, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other government agencies address the other side, the PRC, as China. China is the PRC, and not just verbally but in writing too," he said.
"In the Executive Yuan's administrative report to the Legislative Yuan this past June, the first focus was to realize Taiwan's sovereignty. Now we have decided on a directive to address the PRC as China," Yu said.
Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Michael Kau (高英茂) said that addressing the PRC as China was nothing new.
"In the past we have addressed the PRC as the Chinese Communist Party, Beijing, PRC, and China, so calling them China is nothing new," Kau said.
"Although the premier's statement gave us a unified and clear direction for the future, what he said was nothing new, and I hope this won't devolve into some political spat," Kau said.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) voiced support for Yu's statement.
"Before, we used to call China the Chinese Communist Party, but since China is really an independent sovereign country, we should address them as China according to international norms," said TSU caucus whip Huang Chung-yuan (黃宗源).
"So calling the PRC China in official documents is correct," he said.
But the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus still suggested "mainland China" was a more appropriate term.
"The cross-strait relationship is in a quite sensitive position, and the government should act according to the ROC Constitution, KMT caucus whip Tseng Yuan-chuan (曾永權) said. "It is still better to address China as `mainland China.'"
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS