Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday that Beijing should not impose any prerequisites for reopening negotiations between Taiwan and China.
Hsieh made the remarks while answering questions from People First Party (PFP) Legislator Lee Ching-an (李慶安), who enquired during a question-and-answer session at the legislature about the government's stance on the impending enactment of Beijing's "anti-secession" law, which observers say could be aimed at curbing Taiwan independence.
Lee suggested the government recognize the "1992 consensus" in its dealings with China.
Hsieh called on Beijing to put aside its sovereignty disputes with Taiwan and forswear any other preconditions to display a greater degree of goodwill for rekindling bilateral negotiations on the grounds that the "bigger should compromise more."
Stressing that peace is the cornerstone of cross-strait relations, he said that the government is willing to start two-way talks on direct cargo services based on parity and dignity and even those on direct trade, passenger transport and postal links based on the pattern of the recent charter flights during the Lunar New Year holidays.
Responding to a question from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Su Chi (蘇起) about whether President Chen Shui-bian's (
While fielding questions from KMT Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) on opening regular cross-strait links, Hsieh also vowed to strive for Taiwan's co-existence with China at a time when the National People's Congress in Beijing is anticipated to finish the "anti-secession" legislation next week.
The premier pledged not to give up the goal no matter how difficult the situation.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,