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.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do