Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
When asked by a Japanese reporter which channel would be used to communicate with China, Ma said that the technical details could be worked out later. The point, he said, was that leaders from both sides are willing to act.
"It is important that leaders of both sides are willing to improve the relationship," Ma said.
PHOTO: CNA
Ma said, however, that he has no plans to visit China.
He also said that although Koo Chen-fu (
Ma said he was confident that the SEF and ARATS would continue to function as the intermediary bodies for cross-strait exchanges.
Asked whether he supported the idea of convening a meeting of the major powers on the cross-strait issue, similar to the six-party talks on North Korea, Ma said it would be more appropriate for the two sides to solve their problems themselves. However, he said he would welcome any advice offered by foreign countries.
agreements
Ma said that the SEF and ARATS had conducted 24 rounds of cross-strait negotiations before 2000 and that four agreements were reached during the first Koo-Wang meeting in Singapore in April 1993. The four agreements indicate that both sides are willing and able to resolve their problems, he said.
defense
Ma said upon his arrival in Japan on Wednesday that, if elected, he would increase Taiwan's military budget to 3 percent of the country's GDP.
"This would be to show our resolve to defend ourselves," Ma said.
Given this, a journalist asked why the KMT has been at loggerheads with the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) over defense spending.
Ma answered that although the US government had approved the sale of a package of arms, including submarines, Patriot missiles and anti-submarine aircraft, to Taiwan in 2001, the DPP administration had not submitted a budget bill for the procurement until three years later, in June 2004.
Noting that that proposal was rejected at one point by the legislature on the grounds that details of the proposal were too sketchy and prices were about twice as high as the fair market value, Ma said the purchase of Patriot missiles was later nixed by the Taiwanese public in a nationwide referendum in 2004 initiated by the DPP administration.
He said the purchase of P-3 Orion anti-submarine aircraft had already been passed by the legislature and the purchase of submarines was still under assessment.
Ma, who was confronted by protesters on Thursday angered by Taiwan's claim to the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (
The Diaoyutais, a group of uninhabited islands northwest of Taiwan that are controlled by Japan, are also claimed by China.
Ma was to return from this three-day visit to Japan later yesterday.
hsieh says no
In Taichung, Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said yesterday he would not visit China if elected next year, a Central News Agency (CNA) report said.
Hsieh said he learned from his visit to China in 1993 that the media were not allowed unrestricted access to his activities.
"I don't think I will visit China as the media are not allowed to cover my activities throughout the journey, which would make it difficult for me to explain my whereabouts, even if just for an hour," Hsieh said.
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,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods