The Presidential Office yesterday denied a Chinese-language media report that said Taipei, using its contacts in the US, had asked China to make some cross-strait concessions now that it has passed its "Anti-Secession" Law.
"The government did not do what the story reported," a Presidential Office spokesperson said in a text message dismissing the content of the report.
The text message was confirmed to be authentic.
A report in the China Times yesterday said that "A source confirmed that the government had sought mediation through the US to relay Taiwan's hope that China could show some good will ... now it had passed the Anti-Secession Law."
The so-called "goodwill gestures that are of substantial interests to Taiwan" included, for instance, Beijing not interfering with Taiwan's signing of free trade pacts with other counties, allowing Taiwan to participate in the World Health Assembly and permitting a certain number of tourists from China to visit Taiwan, the report said.
The text message denied this, saying, "President Chen Shui-bian (
In his first comments on the law, Chen on Wednesday expressed "grave concern and regret," over the legislation and announced an official reaction to the law, broken down into six principles. These include: Taiwan is an independent sovereign state and only the Taiwanese people can decide the nation's future; Taiwan and China should resolve their differences through dialogue; China's law is and insult and violates the principles of freedom, democracy and human rights; and Taiwan will seek reconciliation, not confrontation, with China.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
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Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
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