The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday the country must step up its defensive capability because China would not renounce a military option with regard to tension in the Taiwan Strait.
"Beijing is the cause of tensions in the Taiwan Strait. It has no right to comment on our efforts to strengthen our national defense," the council said in a statement.
Taiwan's plan to purchase weapons from the US is needed to maintain cross-strait peace, the council added.
Beijing's leaders yesterday accused Taiwan of "war-provoking behavior" after Premier Yu Shyi-kun said the nation should strike Shanghai with missiles in the event of an attack by China.
The Taiwan Affairs Office under China's State Council also lashed out at the planned multi-billion-dollar arms purchase, suggesting it was intended to secure Taiwan's independence.
"The TAO's remarks are inappropriate and unhelpful for cross-strait relations," council officials said.
Yu angered Beijing last week when he said the weapons were needed to maintain a balance of power, and that if China hit the nation with missiles Taiwan should "at least hit Shanghai."
"This demonstrates Taiwan's ambitions of using force and its false attitude toward peace and independence," said Li Weiyi (
Li accused President Chen Shui-bian (
He also said Taiwan was "obstinately carrying out splittist activities" -- Beijing's rhetoric for pursuing formal independence.
Taiwan's US$18 billion plan to buy US made anti-missile systems, aircraft and submarines sparked a protest attended by thousands last weekend in Taipei. Demonstrators complained that the deal would start a costly arms race with China.
Beijing has asked Washington to scrap the deal.
Earlier this week, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (
Li said China's policy toward Taiwan "remains unchanged" under the new leadership of President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), who took over as head of the military commission earlier this month after former president and military chief Jiang Zemin (江澤民) retired from the post three years early.
"Taiwan belongs to all the Chinese people. Any attempt to change the status of Taiwan by referendum is illegal and not valid. We will not allow Taiwan to be separate," Li said. "Any attempt will be doomed to failure."
Responding to criticism leveled by China's Taiwan Affairs Office, Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said that Beijing's military intimidation and diplomatic suppression will only lead to a bigger chasm across the Taiwan Strait.
"China is the one who is hostile and provocative because it has more than 600 ballistic missiles aimed at us and will not stop suppressing our diplomatic endeavors," he said at a press conference held after the weekly closed-door Cabinet meeting yesterday afternoon.
Taiwan will never be the one to take the initiative to launch a military assault or change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, nor will we do anything to irritate the 1.3 billion Chinese people, he added.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
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