Beijing needs to lift bans on Taiwanese Internet news sites in China if it is to move toward repairing "volatile" relations in the aftermath of the passage of its "Anti-Secession" Law, Mainland Affairs Council Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday.
In an exclusive interview with the Taipei Times, Wu said China would have to begin respecting public opinion in Taiwan and renounce the use of military force under any circumstances in order to repair the damage caused by the recently approved law.
Describing the cross-strait situation as volatile, he said the removal of blocks on online news sites from Taiwan was the first step towards demonstrating a respect for democratic society and public opinion.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
"There is no exception. All news service sites have been blocked by China. Under such circumstances, how can China understand Taiwan? And if they can' t understand Taiwan, how can they understand our democracy, or see how Taiwan's democracy could contribute to China's development?" he said.
"So the first thing that has to be done is that all Internet service needs to be open to all. They need to let Chinese academics, officials and the people understand what the Taiwanese are thinking and doing," he said.
He said Beijing should also respect Taiwan's right to international participation, particularly in the non-political, non-governmental sector.
On March 14, while delivering the nation's official response to Beijing's Anti-Secession Law, Wu said the Chinese government should apologize to the Taiwanese people by actions, not words. He called on Beijing to repair relations with conciliatory gestures.
Asked whether the government had any specific policies to counter the new law, Wu pointed to the significance of strong support from the international community.
"The first level [of the government's response], and the most important level that we are undertaking, is to appeal to the international community to understand the problems and the viciousness of the Anti-Secession Law, and the problems the law will create in the future," he said.
Judging from the lack of reports on any abnormal Chinese military activities, war was not imminent, he said, although he quickly added that "there continues to be a danger in the area."
"I think the best way to deal with it is trying to bring down the tension on one hand, and work with the international community to make sure the Chinese side does not do anything stupid," Wu said.
He pointed to this Saturday's rally sponsored by the Democratic Progressive Party as an example of action that indicates that "we don't want to be bullied by China."
He said that planning was underway for him to travel abroad to lobby for support against China's new law, but nothing was confirmed.
Saying the law was a "new element of danger ? added into already complicated cross-strait relations," Wu said the council would be closely observing any follow-up legislation.
"We need to assess and continue to asses the impact of the law -- and of course the law is just a preliminary political statement that has been codified -- there might be other legislation related to the law. We will continue to watch very carefully what China might do in the near future to make the situation worse," Wu said, referring to Beijing's possible enactment of legislation on the mobilization of defense forces.
He said that while peace and stability, along with the development of cross-strait relations, were the nation's primary long term policy goals, "we need to handle cross-strait policies in a much more cautious manner."
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods