The US is not concerned about whether President Chen Shui-bian (
Wu, head of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), made the remarks yesterday while responding to lawmakers during a question and answer session at the legislature.
HIGH MARKS
"I've been personally in touch with Richard Bush and US officials, and they've all given Taiwan's handling of the situation high marks," Wu said.
Richard Bush, a former American Institute in Taiwan chairman, is the director of the Brookings Institution's Center for Northeast Asian Policy Studies.
Several lawmakers had pointed to an article that Bush wrote for the Chinese-language daily China Times as a call for restraint in responding to Beijing's law.
Responding to complaints that the government should focus on formulating effective policies rather than taking to the streets, Wu said that tomorrow's rally was one of the best ways to express to the international community Taiwan's desire for freedom and democracy.
Wu did not commit to participating in the protest himself, saying only that he would go if his busy schedule permitted.
THE POLICY FRONT
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lin Cho-shui (
"If the Anti-Secession Law is a tiger, then Rice is working to pull out the tiger's teeth by making peace in the Taiwan Strait a common security objective with Japan and by putting pressure on the EU to keep the arms ban on China," Lin said.
In a report commissioned by the legislature, the council identified three policy objectives in responding to Beijing's Anti-Secession Law. The council plans to continue to publicly condemn Beijing's use of non-peaceful means, to lobby for support from the international community and to build domestic consensus on the matter.
STABILITY
Wu said that because the rally's call for freedom, democracy, peace and stability was fundamentally the same as the government's statements in response to Beijing's legislation, there was no real conflict of interest if he decided to take to the streets this weekend.
Wu also said that the National Assembly elections on May 14 could be a possible turning point for cross-strait relations.
"It's just the first major event between now and future [cross-strait] development," Wu explained, while declining to predict where relations might be at that time.
The government will continue to assess the impact of the Anti-Secession Law on cross-strait ties as it formulates future policies, Wu said.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS