Incoming Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) yesterday dismissed media reports claiming that he described cross-strait flights as direct flights.
Chiang, who left for Okinawa yesterday, told reporters at the Taoyuan International Airport that he had never said "cross-strait" aviation routes were "direct" aviation routes after media reports quoted him as saying that during a recent interview with Japanese media.
Chiang said that the "cross-strait aviation route" was a compromise term by both sides after they could not agree on whether they should be defined as international or domestic.
"Hopefully negotiation between Taiwan and China will begin as soon as possible so that the new Cabinet can issue administration orders as soon as Ma is sworn in," Chiang said when talking about president-elect Ma Ying-jeou's (馬英九) campaign policies of implementing weekend direct charter flights, opening up Taiwan to Chinese tourists and deregulating currency exchange between the New Taiwan dollar and the yuan.
What's more, he stressed in the interview that "scheduled direct flights" between the two sides would be implemented next year.
He said that the resumption of cross-strait dialogue would be the first step toward the improvement of cross-strait relations and that he would not rule out the possibility of high-ranking Chinese officials visiting Taiwan or his visiting China after he takes over as SEF chairman.
Before talking with the new chairman of China's Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait, Chiang said he would visit China twice in his capacity as KMT vice chairman. The first visit is scheduled for Thursday to express gratitude for the support Taiwanese businesspeople showed for Ma while the second visit is scheduled for May 6 to prepare for the resumption of cross-strait dialogue.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
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