Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin’s (陳雲林) visit to Taiwan in the near future would be a monumental disservice to Taiwan’s national interests, former representative to the US Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday.
Wu told a forum in Taipei that Beijing would be the sole beneficiary if Chen were to come to Taiwan in the coming months.
Wu said Taiwanese are outraged at Beijing’s inability to handle the tainted milk scandal and other Chinese contaminated food, adding that if Chen were to come to Taiwan before the matter had been fully resolved, he would be met with tremendous hostility from the public.
“Beijing would then use Chen’s unfriendly reception in Taiwan as an excuse to demand an apology from Taiwan,” Wu said.
Chen’s visit would have a powerful divisive effect and could create more opposition in Taiwan — which could only be to Beijing’s advantage, he said.
“Regardless of whether he is greeted with warmth or enmity, Beijing would consider the trip successful because it would achieve the goal of either appearing to be a peacemaker or a victim of animosity,” Wu said.
Chen is expected to visit Taipei before the end of the year for a second round of face-to-face consultations with the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) on direct cargo flights.
The first talks between the two quasi-governmental organizations were held in June in Beijing, where the two parties signed agreements to open Taiwan to more Chinese tourists.
The two groups also agreed to hold the next consultations at a different venue.
Wu said he firmly believed that cross-strait tensions should be addressed through meetings between the SEF and ARATS.
“But now is absolutely the wrong timing for Chen to visit Taiwan,” he said.
Wu and academics at the forum also criticized President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for undermining national sovereignty by kowtowing to Beijing since he came into office in May.
On several occasions, Ma has refereed to Taiwan-China relations as “special non-state-to-state” relations, which is self-denigrating and sends the wrong message to the international community, Wu said.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
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