The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) will normalize Taiwan's exchanges with China if the party regains power in 2008, KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
Ma made the remarks during a live online broadcast of the British Broadcasting Corp's Chinese-language service, while fielding questions from Web users around the world.
He said that at present, the conditions do not exist for Taiwan's unification with China because of the vast differences between the two sides of the Strait.
The two sides need to set up the necessary mechanisms, normalize their exchanges, increase mutual understanding, wait for all conditions to mature and then leave it to the people on both sides to determine whether they want unification, Ma said.
He stressed that the matter should not be left simply to the leaders of Taiwan and China to decide.
The KMT chairman said his party would not rule out the possibility of discussing the unification issue with Beijing, but will not be committed to any timetable for unification with China.
There is still much room for China's improvement and development in order to narrow its gap with Taiwan.
For example, China must first become a democratic society with equitable wealth distribution for its people, and its government must respect basic civic rights, he said.
Asked about President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) recent proposal to scrap the National Unification Council and unification guidelines, Ma said Chen was probably trying to test the waters in order to see the world's reaction.
Ma said that the president could also be trying to use the unification council issue to divert the public's attention from a series of problems in his administration, including the involvement of senior government officials in corruption scandals.
Responding to Ma's remarks that the "the people on both sides" should determine whether they want unification, executive director of the Institute for National Policy Research Lo Chih-cheng (
Lo said that according to the institute's latest survey, 80 percent of respondents feel Taiwan's future should be determined solely by its 23 million people.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai