China held out a clutch of potential economic agreements with Taiwan yesterday at the end of a meeting in Beijing ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao's (
The announcement came during a visit to Beijing by former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (
Beijing is trying to isolate President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) by forging ties with the pan-blue camp and offering trade concessions to appeal to the nation's farmers.
China's offers of aviation, agricultural and finance deals came in a statement after a two-day forum between Chinese Communist officials and KMT officials.
"We must strive to normalize, regularize and stabilize cross-strait economic relations," Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), the chief of the Chinese Communist Party's Taiwan Affairs Office, told the meeting yesterday.
Chen and other Chinese officials urged Taiwan to agree to negotiate on steadily expanding direct air flights between the two sides. Currently, such flights only happen over the Lunar New Year holiday, and Taiwanese visitors to China must usually change planes in Hong Kong or Macao.
China also offered to lower barriers for Taiwan-grown fruit, vegetables and other farm goods.
But the proposals are unlikely to have any direct effect on official government dealings between China and Taiwan, which are frozen by political hostility.
On Friday, Lien said Taiwan can't succeed economically without China's markets and factories.
The measures announced yesterday will add four types of Taiwan-grown fruit to a list of 18 varieties that can be imported into China, extend tax-free import status to 11 new types of vegetables and let Taiwanese fishing boats sell their catch in Chinese markets, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.
In addition, Chinese produce-marketing cooperatives will organize buying trips to Taiwan during fruit harvest season, Xinhua said.
It said China will set up a marketing center in Xiamen, the Chinese port city closest to Taiwan, to "bring convenience and reduce costs for Taiwan's fruit imports."
Chen, the Chinese official, said Beijing would also:
-- allow Taiwanese to apply for licenses to practice medicine in China.
-- expand the number of city governments that are authorized to issue permits for Taiwanese to enter China.
-- allow Taiwanese to apply for jobs as Chinese customs inspectors.
-- recognize diplomas issued by Taiwanese universities.
Beijing announced an earlier round of concessions for Taiwanese farm imports during a visit last year by Lien.
Taiwanese business executives attending the Beijing meeting said it would increase pressure on Chen to seek agreement with Beijing on flights and other economic issues.
The German city of Hamburg on Oct. 14 named a bridge “Kaohsiung-Brucke” after the Taiwanese city of Kaohsiung. The footbridge, formerly known as F566, is to the east of the Speicherstadt, the world’s largest warehouse district, and connects the Dar-es-Salaam-Platz to the Brooktorpromenade near the Port of Hamburg on the Elbe River. Timo Fischer, a Free Democratic Party member of the Hamburg-Mitte District Assembly, in May last year proposed the name change with support from members of the Social Democratic Party and the Christian Democratic Union. Kaohsiung and Hamburg in 1999 inked a sister city agreement, but despite more than a quarter-century of
Taiwanese officials are courting podcasters and influencers aligned with US President Donald Trump as they grow more worried the US leader could undermine Taiwanese interests in talks with China, people familiar with the matter said. Trump has said Taiwan would likely be on the agenda when he is expected to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) next week in a bid to resolve persistent trade tensions. China has asked the White House to officially declare it “opposes” Taiwanese independence, Bloomberg reported last month, a concession that would mark a major diplomatic win for Beijing. President William Lai (賴清德) and his top officials
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday expressed “grave concerns” after Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) reiterated the city-state’s opposition to “Taiwanese independence” during a meeting with Chinese Premier Li Qiang (李強). In Singapore on Saturday, Wong and Li discussed cross-strait developments, the Singaporean Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. “Prime Minister Wong reiterated that Singapore has a clear and consistent ‘one China’ policy and is opposed to Taiwan independence,” it said. MOFA responded that it is an objective fact and a common understanding shared by many that the Republic of China (ROC) is an independent, sovereign nation, with world-leading
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
RSS