The establishment of a "China Union" modeled on the EU to integrate Taiwan and China is unlikely to occur, a French academic said yesterday in Taipei.
The cross-strait "China Union," or "common market," has often been promoted by former premier Vincent Siew (
The problem of the "China Union" idea lies in the size of China and its 1.3 billion population, which is a huge difference compared with Taiwan's territory and its 23 million people, Thierry de Montbrial said in a speech to the European Chamber of Commerce in Taipei (ECCT) that examined the EU-China and future Taiwan-China relations.
De Montbrial founded the French Institute for International Relations (IFPI), a think tank, in 1979 and has been its president ever since.
He is scheduled to meet President Chen Shui-bian (
Cross-strait relations have been deadlocked mainly because of the rhetoric used by each side, he said, adding that the situation could be different 20 years from now if prudent conscience can be developed on both sides.
Citing research conducted by the IFRI on China's future as a global player, de Montbrial said China wants peace for its domestic development and wants to avoid any conflict -- including in its relations with Taiwan. The only exception would be a Taiwanese declaration of independence, he said.
"China will be open to any arrangement other than that," he said.
The EU model cannot be replicated because the EU was born under a specific atmosphere, environment and set of circumstances, he said.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
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,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift