If China insists on passing its proposed anti-secession bill, the result would be akin to "casting a shadow and causing torrential rains" to fall on recent progress in cross-strait cooperation, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) told Newsweek magazine in an interview published this week.
"Groups in Taiwan have started talking about enacting counter legislation like an anti-annexation law. Is this the result Beijing authorities want to achieve?" Chen said when asked about the impact of Beijing's legislation.
"We might not be able to change Beijing's decision, but we still want to express deep concern," Chen was quoted as saying.
Asked to envision a future in which Taiwan and China were unified, Chen said that it would be possible only if China's political and economic circumstances changed.
"If one day the people of Taiwan choose to unify with China, it must be done [after] their political situations [achieve] complete synergy, in which both sides enjoy democratic elections, multiparty politics, a truly neutral military [and] freedom of speech. Moreover, by then the average income in China should be about that of the people in Taiwan," Chen told Newsweek.
Chen indicated that an interim agreement, previously proposed by former US National Security Council senior director for Asian affairs Kenneth Lieberthal, who served under former US president Bill Clinton, was "worthy of our consideration."
"Any sort of peace agreement -- long term, short term, midterm -- we're willing to discuss and talk about," Chen said.
Lieberthal's proposal would maintain the cross-strait status quo for 20 to 30 years.
"Thirty years is just a proposed time frame. If by then China has not achieved a mature democracy, we could delay it to 50 or 100 years. Why not?" Chen said.
Chen also answered questions regarding his recent meeting with People First Party Chairman James Soong (
Chen said that the pledges he issued in the joint agreement he signed with Soong were a reiteration of his promises.
"The other side of the strait has kept trying to twist my words and mislead the international community. They claim I have a timetable for independence and that I intend to change the national moniker. So I took the opportunity yesterday to reiterate my promises," he said.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
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