The government has asked private groups to pursue talks with China on direct air cargo charters and farm exports, signalling a willingness to break a political deadlock with its giant authoritarian neighbor, officials said yesterday.
Premier Frank Hsieh (
The Taiwan External Trade Development Council would be in charge of negotiating on exporting Taiwanese farm goods to China, the spokesman quoted Hsieh as saying in Taichung.
"Pursuing peaceful development and improving cross-strait ties is the government's consistent goal," Hsieh was quoted as saying in a government statement.
"We urge China to give priority in making a positive, concrete response," he said.
Taiwan has banned direct air and shipping links with China since 1949.
The Taipei Airlines Association was responsible for successful negotiations on landmark non-stop charter flights across the Taiwan Strait over the Lunar New Year holidays early this year.
Hsieh said China's recent offer to drop import tariffs on 15 varieties of fruit from Taiwan underscored the urgent need for direct cargo charter flights.
He also welcomed China's move to lift a decades-old ban on Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan, but said both sides need to discuss details first.
He did not appoint a body to handle the tourism talks, however.
China has called for talks on the issue with Taiwan's tourism authorities and promised the new policy would be introduced in a planned, gradual and orderly manner.
In response, leaders of China-based Taiwanese businessmen cautiously welcome the announcement.
Cheng Jung-wen (鄭榮文), a Taiwanese business leader in Shenzhen, Guangdong province said this is a step forward, and is better than just paying lip service.
Yeh Hui-teh (
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) greeted the premier's assertion with suspicion, however. Legislator Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) said she hoped the premier's response is not merely lip service.
People First Party (PFP) official Chang Hsien-yao (
Taiwan Solidarity Union whip Huang Shih-cho (
Democratic Progressive Party whip William Lai (
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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