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.
Three batches of banana sauce imported from the Philippines were intercepted at the border after they were found to contain the banned industrial dye Orange G, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said yesterday. From today through Sept. 2 next year, all seasoning sauces from the Philippines are to be subject to the FDA’s strictest border inspection, meaning 100 percent testing for illegal dyes before entry is allowed, it said in a statement. Orange G is an industrial coloring agent that is not permitted for food use in Taiwan or internationally, said Cheng Wei-chih (鄭維智), head of the FDA’s Northern Center for
The Chinese military has built landing bridge ships designed to expand its amphibious options for a potential assault on Taiwan, but their combat effectiveness is limited due to their high vulnerability, a defense expert said in an analysis published on Monday. Shen Ming-shih (沈明室), a research fellow at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said that the deployment of such vessels as part of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy’s East Sea Fleet signals a strong focus on Taiwan. However, the ships are highly vulnerable to precision strikes, which means they could be destroyed before they achieve their intended
LOOKING NORTH: The base would enhance the military’s awareness of activities in the Bashi Channel, which China Coast Guard ships have been frequenting, an expert said The Philippine Navy on Thursday last week inaugurated a forward operating base in the country’s northern most province of Batanes, which at 185km from Taiwan would be strategically important in a military conflict in the Taiwan Strait. The Philippine Daily Inquirer quoted Northern Luzon Command Commander Lieutenant General Fernyl Buca as saying that the base in Mahatao would bolster the country’s northern defenses and response capabilities. The base is also a response to the “irregular presence this month of armed” of China Coast Guard vessels frequenting the Bashi Channel in the Luzon Strait just south of Taiwan, the paper reported, citing a
About 4.2 million tourist arrivals were recorded in the first half of this year, a 10 percent increase from the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The growth continues to be consistent, with the fourth quarter of this year expected to be the peak in Taiwan, the agency said, adding that it plans to promote Taiwan overseas via partnerships and major events. From January to June, 9.14 million international departures were recorded from Taiwan, an 11 percent increase from the same period last year, with 3.3 million headed for Japan, 1.52 million for China and 832,962 to South Korea,
RSS