An official from the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) renewed yesterday the MAC's calls for China to return to the negotiating table to facilitate efforts in seeking peace across the Taiwan Strait.
MAC Vice Chairman You Ying-lung (
You said that despite Beijing's two-handed maneuvering against Taiwan, the country will stick firmly to the policy of "seeking friendly reconciliation, active cooperation and eternal peace" with China.
This policy is a reflection of President Chen Shui-bian's (
He said that the MAC will work to shelve controversial differences and hard-to-resolve issues, push for cross-strait negotiations and promote exchanges based on the principles of equality and reciprocity.
You said Taiwan needs to adopt new strategies to face the challenges from the other side of the Strait because of Beijing's passage of its "Anti-Secession" Law authorizing the use of force if Taiwan edges toward formal independence on the one hand, while on the other putting forward a spate of gestures ostensibly to improve cross-strait interactions.
You made the remarks during a colloquium sponsored by the Kaohsiung city government, titled "Perceiving China While Being Concerning about the Strait."
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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