The Cabinet yesterday showed an invitation letter from Leung Chun-ying (梁振英), a Beijing-favored candidate for Hong Kong’s next chief executive, to support its statement that Premier Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) had visited the territory on Sept. 5 to learn about mudslide prevention.
“We have made the letter public,” Executive Yuan Spokesman Su Jun-pin (蘇俊賓) told a press conference. “Now those who have accused [Wu] of going to Hong Kong to ask [Chinese authorities] for instructions, please show proof.”
In the letter addressed to “Secretary-General Wu,” referring to Wu’s position then in the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Leung said he would wait respectfully for Wu and his family at 12:30pm and brief Wu about mountain protection. The letter was dated Sept. 4.
Wu has said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) asked whether he would be interested in assuming the premiership on Sept. 3 and Sept 4. Wu left for Hong Kong on Sept. 5 and returned the next afternoon. The Presidential Office announced on Sept. 7 that Ma had appointed Wu as the new premier. Wu was sworn into office on Sept. 10.
Wu’s short trip to Hong Kong right after Ma asked him about the premiership drew the suspicion of the Democratic Progressive Party, which accused Wu of discussing his premiership plans with China via Leung.
Su also presented another letter that Leung sent Wu on Aug. 20 in which Leung expressed his thanks for meeting Wu when he was in Taiwan on Aug. 14 and his hope that Taiwan’s post-disaster reconstruction work would proceed smoothly.
Another document presented by Su showed that Jeff Yang (楊家駿), Taiwan’s representative to Hong Kong, helped fixed the date and time for the meeting between Leung and Wu last month.
Leung had been invited to deliver a speech by the Lung Yingtai Cultural Foundation.
Su dismissed reports whether Leung was an expert on mudslide prevention, saying Hong Kong had set up its mudslide warning system in 1972.
“Although Taiwan has its own system, there are advantages and disadvantages to both systems, which was why an exchange of ideas is necessary. Premier Wu had referred [what he had learned in Hong Kong] to the Council of Agriculture for reference,” Su said.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
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TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
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