People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
"Soong's visit to China and the issue of a `special envoy' are two different matters," said Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General James Huang (
NO ARGUEMENT
"However, if Soong mentions the 10-point agreement to the other side of the Strait, and says that [the consensus] represents President Chen's stance, I think no one will argue against it, since the 10-point consensus was signed by President Chen and PFP Chairman Soong," Huang said.
"As the 10-point consensus was signed by the two [Chen and Soong], it represents their stance. There is therefore no question as to who represents what," Huang said.
In view of Soong's planned visit to China -- in addition to the trip to be made by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
The "United Front" refers to tactics and efforts employed by Beijing aimed at extending its influence in Taiwan to aid unification.
CONSISTENCY
Saying that the government has been consistent with regard to its stance on opposition parties' visits to China, Huang noted that the Presidential Office has encountered a lot of difficulty when trying to communicate with Lien about the China trip.
In comparison, the Presidential Office has maintained smooth contact with the PFP since Chen and Soong's establishment of the 10-point agreement this February, said Huang, adding that the PFP had informed the Presidential Office soon after it received the invitation from Beijing for Soong to visit China.
When asked for the possibility of holding a second meeting between the president and Soong, the Presidential Office deputy secretary-general said that while no substantial moves in such a regard have been undertaken, the Presidential Office has, however, been open about the idea of holding a second Chen-Soong meeting.
NATURE TAKES ITS COURSE: The agency’s head said he felt a sense of loss watching red-banded snakes eat the babies, as they had decided on non-intervention The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday released a documentary on a hundred-pace viper that had incubated 16 eggs, all of which hatched, but only a baby viper escaped after they were attacked by red-banded snakes. The agency’s Taichung branch last year launched the viper reproduction monitoring project soon after forest rangers Lin Chun-yu (林俊佑) and Chou Chia-cheng (周家成) spotted a pregnant hundred-pace viper in a grass-covered burrow near a parking lot in Tbulan Village (松鶴部落). The Atayal village, in Taichung’s Heping District (和平), is headed by Ecyang Yapu, who was positive about the project and assisted in access control and power
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said that it had deployed vessels to “monitor” Chinese ships operating in waters off the east coast. The CGA said it dispatched vessels in response to a China Coast Guard announcement that it had carried out another “routine law-enforcement patrol” in waters off the east coast. “The CGA firmly rejects China’s cognitive warfare campaign of ‘law enforcement in name, jurisdictional expansion in practice,’” it said on X. As of 11am yesterday, two China Coast Guard ships were “loitering and drifting” about 105 nautical miles (195km) and 74 nautical miles east of Green Island (綠島) respectively, it said. It
The first two F-16V Block 70 jets Taiwan purchased from the US were spotted unexpectedly turning back after departing from Hawaii yesterday, potentially further delaying delivery of the aircraft. Taiwan has purchased 66 of the F-16 C/D Block 70 jets to be deployed at Chihhang Air Base (志航基地) in Taitung County and operated by the air force's 7th Tactical Fighter Wing to defend Taiwan’s eastern region. Two single-seat jets, bearing serial No. 6727 and 6728, were spotted taking off from Hickam Field in Hawaii yesterday, observers said. Based on the precedent set during the delivery of Taiwan's older F-16 Block 20s, the new
A sharp rise in compensation to be paid by air force officers who leave before completing their required service could indicate an increase in pilots leaving the military early, an analyst said on Friday, warning that the trend could worsen a shortage of experienced personnel. Chieh Chung (揭仲), a researcher at the Association for Strategic Foresight, issued the warning even though the number of volunteer military personnel is expected to increase next year. The planned headcount for volunteer military personnel, covering officers, noncommissioned officers (NCO) and enlisted soldiers, is 158,223 for next year, up 4,258 from 153,965 this year, Chieh said. The increase
RSS