Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) yesterday said that he had already asked aides to begin arranging his trip to China, waving off criticism that cross-strait negotiations should be conducted with the government's authorization.
Lien insinuated that it is unnecessary for him to report to the authorities before embarking on a visit to China.
"Oh, please tell the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] government not to be so ridiculous!" he said, adding that he has already asked his office to arrange the trip.
Lien did not say what kind of issues he hopes to address during his visit.
Upon his return from Japan on Monday, Lien said that he welcomed Beijing's invitation to visit China.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) had previously accused the KMT of violating legal stipulations prohibiting negotiating or signing any agreements with China without first securing official authorization.
KMT Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and a party delegation recently concluded a visit to China after having reached a 10-point agreement with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
While Chiang's trip and Lien's proposed visit have angered the Taipei government, Chinese state media reported yesterday that the KMT delegation's trip was well-received in China.
TheXinhua News Agency reported that Beijing-based Social Survey Institute of China found that 83 percent of respondents in a survey that reached 1,500 were in favor of Chiang's trip. The report said "68 percent of the respondents said it would help effectively contain secessionist activities [in Taiwan.]"
The People's Daily said in an online editorial, that Chiang's trip had set a precedent for dialogue between the KMT and the CCP.
"On the major premise of one China, we are willing to let bygones be bygones and have dealings with various political parties and politicians on the island with a broad-minded attitude," the editorial said, before asking why other political parties from Taiwan didn't visit.
The editorial reiterated People's Political Consultative Conference Chairman Jia Qinglin's (賈慶林) remarks, saying Beijing welcomed "Taiwan's party chairmen who recognize the 1992 Consensus[and] oppose "Taiwan independence."
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching