China's continued adherence to the May 17 Statement only serves to put limitations on the "normal development" of cross-strait relations, the Mainland Affairs Council said in response to a series of remarks recently coming out of China.
Vice Chairman Johnnason Liu (劉德勳) yesterday made a three-point response to recent remarks made by Wang Zaixi (王在希), vice minister of China's Taiwan Affairs Office office spokesman Li Weiyi (李維一) and the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait.
"Resuming dialogue is the most urgent task both sides face right now, and the council has already said on several occasions that we are willing to engage in negotiations with no political preconditions to discuss concerns held in common by both sides," Liu said yesterday.
During a press conference on Nov 17, Li rebuffed President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) proposal, issued during his National Security Meeting ten-point statement, to use the "Hong Kong model" to immediately initiate discussions on Lunar New Year charter flights.
Li said Taiwan's adherence to "one country on each side of the Taiwan Strait" stood in the way of negotiations and further called on Taiwan to recognize the so-called "1992 Consensus" and the "one China" principle.
"Judging from the remarks made by Chinese officials lately, we feel that China continues to employ the political stance expressed in its May 17 Statement and aims to limit the normal development of relations unilaterally," Liu said, adding that China's criticisms of Taiwan were "unreasonable."
"The development of cross-strait relations depends on a concerted effort from both sides of the Strait," Liu also said, reiterating that cross-strait peace was a responsibility of both Taiwan and China.
Liu said that despite the goodwill that Chen had extended in his inauguration speech, his National Day Speech and his National Security Meeting statement, China had failed to give a complete or positive response on each occasion.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS