The legislative caucus of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday that Taiwan will "never fail" if the two sides of the Taiwan Strait engage in government-to-government dialogue.
DPP caucus whip Lai Ching-teh (
Lai said that state-to-state dialogue would conform with the interests of the US and Taiwan.
He said that the US saw China as the most important power in the Asia-Pacific region in regard to the maintenance of peace and stability, and that Taiwan could be a key force in the process.
If China took advantage of opposition parties for political gain as part of "united front" tactics, then Taiwan would either be unstable or end up under Chinese control -- both of which would be unwelcome developments for the US, he said.
Lai said Chen was elected by the people and that with the people behind him, government-to-government talks would foil Beijing's attempts to splinter Taiwan.
He also slammed the meeting between Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in Beijing on Friday. A platform for more communication between the KMT and the CCP was released in a five-point bulletin after the talks.
Lai said the DPP suspects there is a three-part agenda shared by the KMT and the CCP -- the first being the Lien-Hu meeting, the second an exchange of offices, and thirdly the signing of a peace and trade agreement.
Lien alleged Lien and Hu adjusted the "exchange of offices" to a "communication platform" and changed the "agreement" to a "news bulletin" for fear of violating Taiwanese law.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS