The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would adopt a more conciliatory stance in cross-strait relations that would seek to find more of a middle ground with China if it were to regain power in 2012, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.
Tsai used a rare chance to speak with the international press to suggest that the party’s China policies would remain consistent with those under President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
“I do believe that there needs to be some sort of continuity in administrating [affairs with China],” she said in English. “It is not only the [Taiwanese] people that require that sort of stability, but I think that people outside of Taiwan need that kind of stability too.”
While she declined to mention any specific measures that a future DPP administration would take, she did say the party would not rule out directly engaging in talks with China in the absence of political preconditions.
“I believe that the best way to do so is to begin to conduct dialogue with policy advisors and think tanks across the Strait to gradually build a credible mechanism for bridging our differences and enhance [mutual] understanding,” she said.
This is not the first time the 54 year-old Tsai, a former Mainland Affairs Council chairperson, has sought to reassure the international community that the DPP would no longer pursue the same confrontational cross-strait policies that were a hallmark of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration.
On Friday last week, she suggested in an interview with the Chinese-language Apple Daily that the DPP would most likely continue Ma’s cross-strait policies and that any changes would have to be supported by public consensus and legislative approval.
In a previous meeting with the international press in May, she also insisted the DPP had learned from its eight years in office and would work on a more predictable China policy. She has said that stable cross-strait relations would form a key component of the DPP’s 10-year policy guidelines.
“I do believe we can find a way to resolve whatever problems we have with China that we have to deal with in the short-term,” she said yesterday. “I don’t think maintaining a stable and peaceful relationship requires sacrifice from our sovereignty and democracy.”
On the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA), she said the DPP was still firmly against the far-reaching trade pact but added that any changes would have to be supported by either public consensus or legislative approval.
“We don’t have to go that far as to hold a referendum [on the ECFA], but it’s also hard to exclude that sort of probability, despite the fact that we will make genuine efforts to reach this consensus and acquire the consent of the legislature,” she said.
While she acknowledged that, compared with the Ma administration, there was a general expectation the DPP needed to be firmer on sovereignty and national security-related issues in the face of growing Chinese pressure, she said the issues could be overcome through greater cross-strait interaction.
However, she maintained increasing cross-strait exchanges would not be conducted at the expense of Taiwan’s ties with the rest of the world.
“This is distinct from the KMT government approach, which embraces China as a [corridor] to the world,” she said.
Taiwanese scientists have engineered plants that can capture about 50 percent more carbon dioxide and produce more than twice as many seeds as unmodified plants, a breakthrough they hope could one day help mitigate global warming and grow more food staples such as rice. If applied to major food crops, the new system could cut carbon emissions and raise yields “without additional equipment or labor costs,” Academia Sinica researcher and lead author the study Lu Kuan-jen (呂冠箴) said. Academia Sinica president James Liao (廖俊智) said that as humans emit 9.6 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide compared with the 220 billion tonnes absorbed
The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) Wanda-Zhonghe Line is 81.7 percent complete, with public opening targeted for the end of 2027, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) said today. Surrounding roads are to be open to the public by the end of next year, Hou said during an inspection of construction progress. The 9.5km line, featuring nine underground stations and one depot, is expected to connect Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall Station to Chukuang Station in New Taipei City’s Jhonghe District (中和). All 18 tunnels for the line are complete, while the main structures of the stations and depot are mostly finished, he
Taipei is to implement widespread road closures around Taipei 101 on Friday to make way for large crowds during the Double Ten National Day celebration, the Taipei Department of Transportation said. A four-minute fireworks display is to be launched from the skyscraper, along with a performance by 500 drones flying in formation above the nearby Nanshan A21 site, starting at 10pm. Vehicle restrictions would occur in phases, they said. From 5pm to 9pm, inner lanes of Songshou Road between Taipei City Hall and Taipei 101 are to be closed, with only the outer lanes remaining open. Between 9pm and 9:40pm, the section is
China’s plan to deploy a new hypersonic ballistic missile at a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Rocket Force (PLARF) base near Taiwan likely targets US airbases and ships in the western Pacific, but it would also present new threats to Taiwan, defense experts said. The New York Times — citing a US Department of Defense report from last year on China’s military power — on Monday reported in an article titled “The missiles threatening Taiwan” that China has stockpiled 3,500 missiles, 1.5 times more than four years earlier. Although it is unclear how many of those missiles were targeting Taiwan, the newspaper reported
RSS