The red-carpet treatment that Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) will receive in Beijing will be nothing more than window dressing by the Chinese Communists as a "united front" against Taiwan, democracy activist Wang Dan (王丹) said on Saturday.
Wang, a leader of the pro-democracy student protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989, said that another reason that China will be falling over itself to embrace the KMT delegation is to curry favor with Washington, which has long advocated that cross-strait issues be resolved peacefully or via dialogue.
In a speech delivered to a group of overseas Chinese in Los Angeles, Wang suggested that Lien, who is scheduled to embark on his self-styled "journey of peace" to China tomorrow, should make it clear to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) that change must come to the China's political regime, including democratization and freedom of speech. Lien must also speak on behalf of Taiwan to protect Taiwan's long-term interests, he said.
Wang, a Harvard University doctoral candidate who is currently on a research project on the West Coast, said that even if the KMT chairman signs an agreement with his Beijing hosts, it would be "just rubbish," given the true colors of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Noting that every written accord that the KMT and the CCP reached in the past ended up in the trash can of history, Wang, a history major at Peking University before the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, said that the CCP is untrustworthy and not interested in matters that only benefit others.
Wang, the founder of the Chinese Constitutional Reform Association in the US, has visited Taiwan many times since his visit trip in March 1999. He was in Taipei in January 2003 to launch his two new books written in Chinese -- one a collection of poems and the other a work of prose -- both published by Taipei's Locus Publishing Co.
He was in Taipei again in July 2003 for six weeks at the invitation of the Taipei City Government as an artist-in-residence.
Wang was jailed in July 1989 for his part in the pro-democracy demonstration and was released in February 1993. He was arrested again in October 1996 and sentenced to a further 11-year prison term.
In April 1998, he was released on parole on medical grounds and permitted to travel to the US for treatment -- a move that effectively sent him into exile.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai