Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
The Chinese-language daily China Times yesterday reported that Wang is scheduled to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in China next month and make two public speeches in Peking University and Tsinghua University.
The report said that Wang would meet Hu in his capacity as the leader of the highest representative organ of the people in Taiwan.
Several international news services picked up the unsourced China Times story and ran reports saying that Wang was set to meet Hu.
But they did not include any comments from the legislative speaker supporting the claim.
Asked to comment on the report when he was approached by the press in Penghu County, Wang said: "The facts are at variance with the story."
"I do have a plan [to visit China] and I have been planning it for years, but there has been no appropriate time [to carry it out]," Wang said.
Meanwhile, asked whether he was planning to declare his presidential bid after the Lantern Festival -- on March 4 -- Wang said he was still canvassing public opinion.
"I will make the decision in consultation with the public nationwide to see how they feel [about my running for president]. They've responded very warmly," he said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
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