The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration must strengthen dialogue with the opposition now that cross-strait negotiations have resumed, academics attending a forum said yesterday.
Chang Wu-ueh (張五岳), director of Tamkang University’s Institute of China Studies, said Beijing sent seasoned negotiators to the high-profile meetings last week, while Taipei negotiators were inexperienced, being new to their positions.
At the outset of negotiations between the quasi-official Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), Chang said the country must strengthen its preparedness for negotiations and cultivate strong negotiators.
The country must use its partisan politics to its advantage and turn dissent into an asset for cross-strait negotiations rather than a liability, he said.
Chang made the remarks while addressing a forum organized by the Taiwan Thinktank in Taipei to discuss the resumption of talks between the SEF and ARATS.
Chang said although both sides agreed on certain issues, Taipei’s expectations for Beijing was based on economics, while Beijing’s expectations for Taipei were political.
Chang said he would like to know whether Beijing would satisfy Taipei’s economic agenda if the Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration failed to please Beijing’s political expectations.
Chang said the official negotiation channel should be the one and only channel. Contact between political parties should be in the form of dialogues or exchanges between both sides, he said.
He also dismissed the proposal that legislators participate in cross-strait negotiations as “weird” because it would be strange to have legislators attend negotiations and come back to approve an agreement they signed at the negotiation table.
Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), director of Soochow University’s political science department, said the Ma administration had acted too hastily in making his election promise a reality and that he was worried it would put Taiwan at a disadvantage at the negotiation table.
It was worrisome that the Mainland Affairs Council and the SEF are competing for dominance in setting cross-strait policy and that the administration pinned the country’s economic prosperity on the goodwill of Beijing, he said.
He also expressed concern over the lack of supplementary programs to welcome more Chinese tourists.
He said he would like to know whether the eight airports opened to weekend charter flights are well equipped, local hotels are able to accommodate more Chinese tourists and if more Chinese tourists will crowd out local or Japanese tourists.
Lo said the cross-strait atmosphere may seem good now, but at the end of the day, the country must face the reality of whether it was worth it to have more Chinese tourists but lose visitors from other countries.
“When both sides are under pressure that they cannot afford to backtrack, they are bound to bump into difficulties,” he said.
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS