Peaceful cross-strait relations with policies that improve the economy and allow direct communications for people on either side of the Taiwan Strait would be better for the country's future, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) told a group of Hong Kong journalists yesterday.
Representatives from the Hong Kong Journalist Association paid a visit to Ma yesterday, who also serves as Taipei mayor. During the 40-minute meeting at Taipei City hall, the 17 journalists expressed great concern about cross-strait relations in the wake of the president's New Year address.
The group also called on Ma to strengthen ties between Taipei and Hong Kong.
President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) decision to tighten cross-strait policies and make constitutional engineering one of his priorities, Ma said, may have a negative impact on the country's economy.
"What people in Taiwan need now is a respite from the heat. They need the government to focus on improving the economy," Ma said.
The country has undergone seven constitutional revisions, Ma said, and the current Constitution is already applicable to Taiwan. He added that such frequent revisions are "indeed rare in the world."
Urging the government to put greater effort into fighting for Taiwan's economy, Ma warned that by 2010, China will sign a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with ASEAN. If by that time Taiwan hasn't integrated with ASEAN members, the country will have to pay higher tariffs, and therefore it may cause more companies to give up exports and invest directly in China instead.
While Ma said peaceful cross-strait relations with policies like the export of Taiwanese fruits to China would be better for Taiwan, Chang Ping-ling (張炳玲), chairwoman of the journalists' association, expressed concern about how former chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) "successful" visit to China had seemingly turned the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government into a mere figurehead.
In reply, Ma said the popularity that Lien enjoyed after his visit to China showed that Taiwanese people supported the policies, including the export of agricultural products to China.
"The DPP government, by opposing such policies, gave the opposition parties more room and increased popularity ? But there is still time for it to change its mind and win back the people's support," he said.
Ma said that allowing more Chinese to visit Taiwan would be important as it would help people understand each other, and ease cross-strait tensions.
Asked if he will revive the "Twin-city forum" that was held in Hong Kong in 2001, Ma expressed his willingness to either visit Hong Kong again, or hold the forum this year in Taipei and invited "friends from Hong Kong," such as Hong Kong Chief Executive Donald Tsang (曾蔭權), to join him in discussing environmental, educational and cultural issues.
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
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,