Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
During a visit to the Los Angeles-based think tank the Rand Corporation, academics questioned Ma about the feasibility of his proposed China policy initiatives -- the "five dos."
Ma introduced a program for engagement with China in a speech at Harvard University on March 20, which he labeled the "five dos."
The five points of the initiative are: To resume negotiations between Taiwan and China based on the so-called "1992 consensus" (agreeing to disagree about the definition of "one China"); to reach a peace accord with confidence building measures; to facilitate economic exchanges with the aim of eventually establishing a common market; to work with China to boost Taiwan's presence in international bodies and to expand educational and cultural exchanges.
Ma said that four out of the "five dos" had already been mostly implemented, as result of former KMT chairman Lien Chan's (
"As for the fifth one, concerning education, I think it shouldn't pose too much of a problem," Ma said.
During his stay in Los Angeles, Ma also had an interview with CNN, in which he reiterated the KMT's hope of signing an accord with China that would promise cross-strait peace for a period of 30-50 years.
Ma also visited Los Angeles Mayor Antonia Villaraigosa. The two vowed to promote artistic exchanges between the two cities.
They also shared views and experiences regarding respective municipal projects, such as the provision of wireless broadband Internet services, but Villaraigosa said his city was "obviously behind" Taipei City on this issue.
Ma also gave a speech to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council entitled "Peace and Stability in East Asia -- Taiwan's Role."
The content of the speech was more or less the same as a previous speech he delivered to the Brookings Institute in Washington last week.
Ma is slated to return to Taiwan early today from Los Angeles -- the last leg of a US tour that has taken him to New York, Boston, Washington and San Francisco.
Back in Taipei, the KMT caucus yesterday held a news conference to praise Ma's performance as he concluded his visit to the US.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
RSS