Speaking on the eve of his landmark trip to China, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) said yesterday that he is not going to bargain and emphasized that there are no limits to the topics he may cover during his anticipated meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), who is also Chinese Communist Party (CCP) head .
Lien emphasized that his trip to China from today until May 3 is being made on an individual basis and as a representative of the KMT.
He sidestepped questions about if and how he plans to report his trip's results to the government, what topics he plans to discuss during his meeting with Hu on Friday, and whether it has been established that his meeting with Hu will take place under the "one China" principle.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FENG, TAIPEI TIMES
He said he believed that he and the relevant Chinese authorities can work together for both countries' mutual benefit.
"I am making this trip as an individual and am representing the KMT, not the government. I hope that I can use this opportunity to exchange views. We have not set any boundaries or established any premise [for interactions in China]. I am not going to bargain. I do not have the authority to represent any position," Lien said at a press conference held by the KMT yesterday morning.
Understanding
The main point of his trip, Lien said, is to expand his understanding of the progress and development that has taken place in China in the past decades while discussing issues related to the interests of both China and Taiwan.
When specifically asked by reporters if such issues include China's recently-passed "Anti-Secession" Law, Lien said that there were no limits on the topics that he might discuss with Hu and that he does not exclude the possibility that he would talk about the law.
The meeting between Lien and Hu will be the first the leaders of the CCP and the KMT in 56 years.
Lien also expressed his personal feelings on the eve of the landmark trip to China.
"I anticipate and am happy about this trip. I also feel a certain amount of sadness. The last time I left the mainland was 59 years ago, it is also a historical grief," Lien said, adding that he is grateful to have this opportunity to be able to visit China with his comrades and friends in the KMT.
Paal meeting
When questioned about his meeting last week with the director of the American Institute in Taiwan, Douglas Paal, Lien said that in addition to the US, many individuals and governments from countries in Asia and Europe have privately expressed their support for his trip to the party.
Lien was invited to China by Jia Qinglin (
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
RSS