If elected president, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (
In his opening remarks at a reception for foreign reporters in Taipei yesterday, Hsieh said that he believes that cross-strait relations will not be changed by policies but by changing the "attitude" that Taiwan and China have about each other.
"And my attitude is clear ... I do believe [Taiwan's] peaceful coexistence with China will contribute to peace in Asia Pacific region," Hsieh said in English. "It is conductive to cross-strait development."
Dialogue
"If I can be elected to be president, I will do whatever it takes to push forward cross-strait dialogue and negotiation," he said. "I will do my best to create mutual interests and mutual trust."
When asked how he would put a dialogue with China into place, Hsieh said he would seek to establish a "consensus" with China in terms of "procedure" and "time." He did not elaborate.
When asked for his opinion on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) comments earlier yesterday that Ma would restore dialogue with China based on the "1992 consensus," Hsieh said he did not think it was important if such a consensus existed.
"The point is whether both sides believe it is important to conduct negotiations. If we do, we can negotiate with each other even without the `consensus,'" he said.
Hsieh said he is willing to assume China is a "rational" and "predictable" country and believes China would be receptive to him as the Taiwanese president.
When asked if he was competing with Ma to see who had more accommodating cross-strait policies, Hsieh disagreed, saying that this was a competition for "who can better safeguard Taiwan's interests."
He said he hoped China understands that Taiwan will not stand in China's path in its drive to become an international superpower.
When asked for his view on allowing Chinese investors to invest or buy property in Taiwan, Hsieh said he held a liberal opinion on the issue, adding that the government would work out restrictions when necessary.
When asked about his vision for US-Taiwan and Taiwan-Japan relations, Hsieh said his goal would be to build up "common strategic interests" with the US and Japan, adding that he hoped to sign an agreement with Japan similar to the Taiwan Relations Act Taiwan has with the US.
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read: