Vice President Annette Lu (
Lu told her visitors that she expected that Germany, which is now led by its first ever female chancellor Angela Merkel, will maintain its efforts to ensure world peace.
Lu said she appreciated the German parliament's decision last year not to allow the lifting of the arms embargo on China.
"The decision is crucial not only to Taiwan but also to the Asia-Pacific region," Lu said.
Stressing China's animosity toward Taiwan, Lu said that President Chen Shui-bian (
If cruise missiles are included in that count, Taiwan is now targeted by more than 800 Chinese missiles, Lu said.
"We clearly know that China wants to extend its power into the Pacific Ocean by taking Taiwan," Lu said.
Lu said she was glad to see the EU expand and that she hopes the EU's 25 members would jointly monitor the development of China's military capabilities in order to ensure peace in the region.
In his New Year address, Chen said that he would not bow to pressure from the opposition parties and China to relax his cross-strait policies. Since then, Chen's idea of "active management, effective opening" has been criticized by opposition parties.
Elaborating on the president's remarks, Presidential office Deputy Secretary-General James Huang (
Huang made the remarks while meeting with foreign correspondents in Taipei to explain Chen's policies.
Huang said that Chen's past "five noes" pledges and his sincere willingness to engage in dialogue with China remain unchanged.
"The president has held out olive branches several times, but the Beijing government remains hostile to Taiwan's government," Huang said.
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
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