The so-called "fourth communique" recently signed by China and Japan was more symbolic than substantive, a group of academics said in Taipei yesterday, warning that China might demand that Tokyo take a more negative stance on the Taiwan issue as Japan vies for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.
The political document and Chinese President Hu Jintao’s (胡錦濤) trip to Japan, including gestures such as playing ping pong with a Japanese university student and offering to give Tokyo a pair of pandas, were China’s efforts to distract the world’s attention from the Tibet issue, said Liu Shih-chung (劉世忠), former deputy director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Research and Planning Committee.
The meeting was also a way for Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda to boost his waning popularity in Japan, Liu said at a forum hosted by the Taiwan Thinktank.
While a number of foreign political observers interpret Hu’s rare state visit to Japan as a sign of warming relations between the two historical rivals, academics in Taiwan, however, said the visit revealed that while China and Japan are willing to move forward on issues such as security, fighting terrorism and environmental protection, Japan would most likely stick to its usual political policies, including those on Taiwan.
Before Hu’s trip, there was a lot of speculation that China and Japan would sign a fourth communique in which Beijing would ask Japan to change its approach to “respect and understand” the “one China” policy to one of “support” for “one China.”
“Just because China did not get what it wants this time, it does not mean it would not make the demand next time when Hu goes back to Hokkaido in three months for the annual G8 summit,” said Li Ming-juinn (李明峻), deputy secretary-general of the Taiwan Society of International Law.
Lai I-chung (賴怡忠), deputy director of the Democratic Progressive Party’s Department of International Affairs, told the forum that, unlike in the past, Japan is taking the approach of simultaneously developing relations with both China and Taiwan.
In the past, he said, Japan temporarily ceased negotiations with Taiwan while Tokyo launched dialogs with China.
“But, interestingly enough, 48 hours before the signing of the fourth communique with Beijing, Japan and Taiwan signed an aviation agreement. It shows that Japan is treating its relations with Beijing and Taiwan with equal importance,” he said.
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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