Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday said that cross-strait relations will be negatively influenced if the Chinese Nationalist Party and People First Party do well in tomorrow's elections.
Wu made the remarks in the wake of President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) remarks that the government will tighten cross-strait economic policy should the pan-blue camp win. Chen made the comments on Wednesday while campaigning for former minister of justice Chen Ding-nan (陳定南), who is running for Ilan county commissioner.
As Chen's remarks appeared to contradict earlier statements given by the government, which said it will lift the ban on industries such as 0.18-micron-wafer fabrication facilities, semiconductor testing and packaging service suppliers and small LCD panels, and allow them to move to China. Wu moved yesterday to clarify the president's comments.
MAC said that the government will stick to its previously stated position, that is, it will review the ban. Wu added that the second Economic Development Advisory Conference to be held in January would be the ideal opportunity to reach a consensus on the review.
Wu explained of Chen's comments while attending a forum on the relation between cross-strait affairs and tomorrow's elections.
"Look at the results of last year's legislative elections. The pan-blue camp won those, and cross-strait relations have regressed since then," Wu said.
Wu blamed the regression on China's enactment of the "Anti-Secession Law" in March that authorizes the use of force against Taiwan and China's united front strategy of being friendly with the opposition parties -- by inviting opposition leaders to China in the first half of the year and avoiding having talks with Taiwan's popularly elected government.
He said that the cross-strait situation didn't get any better until the latter half of the year.
"If the pan-blues win in these elections, the opposition will be encouraged and will probably impose more boycotts on the government, which will have a harmful effect on the normalization of cross-strait relations," Wu said.
Wu then restated that it is the government's position to improve cross-strait relations, saying that the government will continue pursuing negotiations on the opening of Taiwan to Chinese tourists and direct cargo and passengers charter flights.
He said that the threat of China's military and its diplomatic oppression of Taiwan are the main obstacles to improving relations.
"Given these obstacles, many outstanding issues, such as providing protection for China-based Taiwanese businessmen, anti-crime operations and the conversion mechanism between the two currencies need the cooperation of both sides. We look forward to talking with China about these issues," Wu said.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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:
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not