Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
Ma made the remarks when meeting with members of the Japan-ROC Diet Members' Consultative Council in Tokyo, the Central News Agency reported.
The council, better known as the Nikkakon (
PHOTO: AFP
During the meeting, Ma said he would pursue a policy of "no unification, no independence and no armed conflicts" if elected next year.
The presidential candidate said he would neither hold unification negotiations with China, nor support independence for Taiwan.
Ma said he would maintain the "status quo" in cross-strait relations, but would seek to negotiate with China on "normalizing economic ties, signing a peace treaty and increasing Taiwan's presence in the international community."
The presidential hopeful added that he would ask China to dismantle the ballistic missiles aimed at Taiwan before attempting any peace negotiations.
"We will be a responsible stakeholder. We will never unilaterally change the `status quo' and risk regional instability," Ma was quoted as saying.
Ma said he would try to enhance the relationship between Taiwan and Japan, and would make signing of a free trade agreement one of his objectives.
The former KMT chairman said on Wednesday that his visit to Japan was intended in part to alleviate concerns there that he is "anti-Japanese."
"I am neither anti-Japan nor pro-Japan. I hope to understand Japan and I hope the Japanese people will get to know me," Ma told a press conference on Tuesday.
Ma was scheduled to hold a news conference at a Tokyo hotel today before returning home later in the day, the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office said.
Asked for his take on Ma's comments, Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said in Taipei yesterday that it was difficult to comment on Ma's remarks because the KMT presidential candidate "changes his mind too much."
Hsieh said it was confusing that Ma was now saying that he doesn't want to pursue unification whereas this had once been his stated goal.
Additional reporting by AP and AFP
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS