The Chinese government said yesterday that President Chen Shui-bian (
An unnamed spokesman from Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office also reiterated that China would never allow Taiwan to formally break away, the People's Daily reported.
"Chen intends to unreasonably restrict cross-strait exchanges and cooperation, worsen the atmosphere of cross-strait relations, and ruin the peaceful and stable development of cross-strait ties," the spokesman was quoted as saying.
"We will be highly vigilant to any secessionist moves and never allow secessionists to separate Taiwan from the motherland in any name or by any way," he said.
Chen said on Monday in a New Year's message that the nation's sovereignty lay in its own hands.
"Hereby we must stress that Taiwan is our country. Taiwan's sovereignty belongs to 23 million people. It definitely does not belong to the People's Republic of China," Chen said after a national flag-hoisting ceremony.
"Only the 23 million have the right to decide on the future of Taiwan. Taiwan is part of the world but not part of China," he said.
His remarks came after China issued a key defense paper arguing it needs a strong and credible military and citing security challenges it said it cannot ignore, such as Taiwan's independence drive.
Taiwan is to have nine extended holidays next year, led by a nine-day Lunar New Year break, the Cabinet announced yesterday. The nine-day Lunar New Year holiday next year matches the length of this year’s holiday, which featured six extended holidays. The increase in extended holidays is due to the Act on the Implementation of Commemorative and Festival Holidays (紀念日及節日實施條例), which was passed early last month with support from the opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party. Under the new act, the day before Lunar New Year’s Eve is also a national holiday, and Labor Day would no longer be limited
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
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Temperatures in New Taipei City’s Sindian District (新店) climbed past 37°C yesterday, as the Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued heat alerts for 16 municipalities, warning the public of intense heat expected across Taiwan. The hottest location in Taiwan was in Sindian, where the mercury reached 37.5°C at about 2pm, according to CWA data. Taipei’s Shilin District (士林) recorded a temperature of 37.4°C at noon, Taitung County’s Jinfeng Township (金峰) at 12:50 pm logged a temperature of 37.4°C and Miaoli County’s Toufen Township (頭份) reached 36.7°C at 11:40am, the CWA said. The weather agency yesterday issued a yellow level information notice for Taipei, New
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