Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kun (江丙坤) yesterday dismissed media reports that there were political reasons behind the selection of Chongqing as the location for inking the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).
Chiang also dismissed media speculation that the signing of the ECFA was deliberately timed to coincide with the seventh anniversary of the signing of Hong Kong’s Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) with China.
“We’ve hoped to complete the signing of important agreements in the first half of the year,” Chiang said.
The Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) on Monday reported on the choice of Chongqing as the venue for the signing. It was the then-Chinese Nationalist Party administration’s (KMT) provisional capital during its war with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) before the KMT fled to Taiwan and it was where the two once signed a peace agreement. The report said the selection of Chongqing as the location to sign the ECFA suggested the KMT agreed with the CCP’s stance that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are awaiting “reunification.”
Dismissing the report during a trip to a historic pottery town with Beijing’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) on Monday afternoon, Chiang said Chongqing CCP Secretary Bo Xilai (薄熙來) previously invited him to hold the fifth round of cross-strait talks in Chongqing.
“I thought we, the guests, might as well follow the host’s wishes,” Chiang said, adding that the choice did not have any special political significance.
Chiang later yesterday met with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Wang Yi (王毅), who described the signing of the ECFA between Taiwan and China yesterday a major development and a milestones in the development of cross-strait peace.
Wang congratulated Chiang on the signing and told him and other SEF officials that the ECFA is expected to help both sides across the Taiwan Strait improve their competitiveness.
Wang and Chiang held a closed-door meeting after Wang finished his opening remarks.
Chiang is also to meet Bo this morning after the SEF and ARATS delegates plant memorial trees in a botanical garden. Chiang and his entourage are to wrap up their stay in China and return to Taipei this evening.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday voiced dissatisfaction with the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans- Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), whose latest meeting, concluded earlier the same day, appeared not to address the country’s application. In a statement, MOFA said the CPTPP commission had "once again failed to fairly process Taiwan’s application," attributing the inaction to the bloc’s "succumbing to political pressure," without elaborating. Taiwan submitted its CPTPP application under the name "Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu" on Sept. 22, 2021 -- less than a week after China
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,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
A home-style restaurant opened by a Taiwanese woman in Quezon City in Metro Manila has been featured in the first-ever Michelin Guide honoring exceptional restaurants in the Philippines. The restaurant, Fong Wei Wu (豐味屋), was one of 74 eateries to receive a “Michelin Selected” honor in the guide, while one restaurant received two Michelin stars, eight received one star and 25 were awarded a “Bib Gourmand.” The guide, which was limited to restaurants in Metro Manila and Cebu, was published on Oct. 30. In an interview, Feng Wei Wu’s owner and chef, Linda, said that as a restaurateur in her 60s, receiving an
RSS