Taiwan has a great opportunity to improve cross-strait relations, and the opportunity will quickly pass if both sides do not take advantage of it, Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) said yesterday.
The government would like to see a win-win situation created on the economic front and sustainable peace across the Taiwan Strait, he said.
To that end, a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement would prevent Taiwan from being marginalized economically, and the normalization of cross-strait trade would help create such a positive situation, he said.
In pursuing cross-strait peace, he said both sides must sign a peace agreement and establish a military mutual trust mechanism to establish a framework that can be developed upon.
Chiang made the remarks while addressing the Presidential Office’s monthly meeting for top government officials and civil servants.
At a different setting yesterday, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) praised joint oil exploration between Japan and China, saying that joint development and resource sharing is the best way for countries with similar problems to find solutions.
Calling the agreement signed between Tokyo and Beijing to jointly explore oil reserves in the East China Sea an “outstanding achievement,” Ma said that about 40 years ago, European countries were fighting over oil reserves in the North Sea. However, they reached an agreement in the 1970s and decided to jointly develop the resources. Years later, Brent North Sea crude has become one of the most important brands in the global oil market, he said.
“It teaches us the lesson that the best way to solve a problem is through joint development and resource sharing,” he told a Japanese delegation attending this year’s Taiwan-Japan Forum.
Ma said that cross-strait relations have seen significant change since he took office. Previous conflicts and tension had been reconciled and there would be peace and prosperity, he said.
When tensions between both sides are reduced, Japan would no longer need to make a tough choice between Taiwan and China, and could instead maintain sound relations with both sides, Ma said.
Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung and Taoyuan would issue a decision at 8pm on whether to cancel work and school tomorrow due to forecasted heavy rain, Keelung Mayor Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑) said today. Hsieh told reporters that absent some pressing reason, the four northern cities would announce the decision jointly at 8pm. Keelung is expected to receive between 300mm and 490mm of rain in the period from 2pm today through 2pm tomorrow, Central Weather Administration data showed. Keelung City Government regulations stipulate that school and work can be canceled if rain totals in mountainous or low-elevation areas are forecast to exceed 350mm in
The Central Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) has made a three-phased compulsory evacuation plan for Hualien County’s Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) disaster zone ahead of the potential formation of a typhoon. The plan includes mandatory vertical evacuation using air-raid-style alarms if needed, CEOC chief coordinator Chi Lien-cheng (季連成) told a news conference in the county yesterday. Volunteers would be prohibited from entering the disaster area starting tomorrow, the retired general said. The first phase would be relocating vulnerable residents, including elderly people, disabled people, pregnant women and dialysis patients, in shelters and hospitals, he said. The second phase would be mandatory evacuation of residents living in
EVA Airways president Sun Chia-ming (孫嘉明) and other senior executives yesterday bowed in apology over the death of a flight attendant, saying the company has begun improving its health-reporting, review and work coordination mechanisms. “We promise to handle this matter with the utmost responsibility to ensure safer and healthier working conditions for all EVA Air employees,” Sun said. The flight attendant, a woman surnamed Sun (孫), died on Friday last week of undisclosed causes shortly after returning from a work assignment in Milan, Italy, the airline said. Chinese-language media reported that the woman fell ill working on a Taipei-to-Milan flight on Sept. 22
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South