This year and next are the "windows of opportunity" in cross-strait relations, President Chen Shui-bian (
"It is regrettable that Beijing missed the `window of opportunity' in 2000," Chen said.
"I believe this year and next year will present the other `windows of opportunity,' but if they are missed, we might need to wait till 2008 or even after 2010," he said.
Chen made the remarks yesterday while meeting with visiting New York Times chairman and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and his wife at the Taipei Guest House.
Noting that the proposed meeting between him and Chinese President Hu Jin-tao (
Chen said he is very much looking forward to the day when, under the principles of democracy, peace and equality, leaders from both sides of the Taiwan Strait will have the opportunity to reconcile their differences.
"I hope the first time can be in a third country. Maybe the US would be the best place to hold such a meeting," Chen said.
The president also said he would not expect a conclusion to be reached after only one meeting with Hu, and subsequent meetings would be needed.
He did not put a time frame on the meetings, but said if reconciliation wasn't possible within a year, negotiations over a period of several years would be appropriate.
Meanwhile, a Presidential Office official yesterday said that Chen's desire to attend the APEC leaders' summit has nothing to do with meeting with Hu.
"It has been the Presidential Office's usual position to have the president attend the APEC leaders' summit in person," said Presidential Office Deputy Director Chuo Chun-ying (
"That [attending the APEC meeting] and a Chen-Hu meeting are two different matters," he said.
Chuo made the remarks in response to a local Chinese-language newspaper report which said that the president hopes to meet with his Chinese counterpart during this year's APEC summit.
South Korea is host country for this year's APEC meetings, which will take place in November in Busan -- the country's second largest city and its biggest trading port.
The newspaper speculated that Chen's "third country" proposal for a meeting refers to the upcoming APEC summit.
The paper quoted Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), who has represented Taiwan at previous APEC events, as saying that he thinks Chen should go to the upcoming summit and "discuss cross-strait issues with Hu."
"If President Chen is able to attend the APEC summit, he would be able to interact with his counterparts from all APEC member countries, not just with the top leader from any specific country," Cho said yesterday.
Twenty-one APEC countries are expected to take part in the meeting scheduled for Nov. 18 and 19 , which will be attended by leaders such as US President George W. Bush and Hu.
Since Taiwan and China joined APEC in 1991, Beijing has blocked Taiwan's presidents and foreign ministers from attending the annual forums.
As a result, the president must always appoint an envoy to go on his behalf.
When asked by the press for comments on the matter yesterday, Vice President Annette Lu (
"It would be great" if both Chen and Hu could meet at the APEC leaders' summit, she said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods