Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said on Thursday that the government opposes unilateral moves taken by either side of the Taiwan Strait that could change Taiwan's status, build up cross-strait tension and affect political stability and economic prosperity in East Asia.
Answering a question raised in the Canadian parliament by Don Boudria, a leader of the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance, who asked Pettigrew whether Canada was taking a similar stance to the US on Beijing's enactment of an "anti-secession" law targeting Taiwan, Pettigrew said that the content of the proposed law is still unknown, but he added that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would try to gain further information about the law once it is passed and publicized.
Boudria, who is also chairman of the parliamentarian Taiwan-Canada Friendship Association, said during a question-and-answer session that Washington has recently voiced its opposition to Beijing's enactment of the proposed law, which would provide Beijing with a legal basis to adopt "non-peaceful means" to resolve cross-strait problems if it thinks Taiwan is making moves toward independence.
Meanwhile, Stockwell Day, a spokesman for the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance, said that China's expected enactment of the "anti-secession" law reflected Beijing's attempts to invade Taiwan.
Day claimed that Taiwan's "allies," have expressed concern over a democracy being infringed upon by totalitarians, Canada should also render its support to Taiwan.
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
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