Saying that it was impossible for Taiwan and China to recognize each other based on their respective constitutions, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) proposed yesterday that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge what he termed "mutual non-denial."
Ma said the KMT supports the idea of each side of the Strait having its own interpretation of "one China." He said that as long as China and Taiwan could reach the status of what he termed as "mutual non-denial," they would spontaneously refer back to the so-called "1992 consensus."
"This [mutual non-denial] is the minimum requirement," Ma told reporters during a visit to Humayun's Tomb in New Delhi on the second day of his two-day trip to India.
"If we could put aside controversies through this [mutual non-denial] format, we could jointly address the more urgent and substantial issues," he said.
Ma said the idea of "mutual non-denial" could not be used to resolve the cross-strait stalemate immediately. It could be used as a first measure to change the attitudes on both sides and create more room for discussion, he said.
"The pursuit of legal independence is the pursuit of an illusion," he said.
"Those who pursue this will have big disappointment once they are disillusioned," he said.
Commenting on Ma's remarks, Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said in Taipei yesterday: "Taiwan does not deny China, it is China which is denying Taiwan's international space."
The inspection equipment and data transmission system for new robotic dogs that Taipei is planning to use for sidewalk patrols were developed by a Taiwanese company, the city’s New Construction Office said today, dismissing concerns that the China-made robots could pose a security risk. The city is bringing in smart robotic dogs to help with sidewalk inspections, Taipei Deputy Mayor Lee Ssu-chuan (李四川) said on Facebook. Equipped with a panoramic surveillance system, the robots would be able to automatically flag problems and easily navigate narrow sidewalks, making inspections faster and more accurate, Lee said. By collecting more accurate data, they would help Taipei
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
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A 72-year-old man in Kaohsiung was sentenced to 40 days in jail after he was found having sex with a 67-year-old woman under a slide in a public park on Sunday afternoon. At 3pm on Sunday, a mother surnamed Liang (梁) was with her child at a neighborhood park when they found the man, surnamed Tsai (蔡), and woman, surnamed Huang (黃), underneath the slide. Liang took her child away from the scene, took photographs of the two and called the police, who arrived and arrested the couple. During questioning, Tsai told police that he had met Huang that day and offered to