A new cross-strait civic dialogue platform, initiated by two prominent former student leaders in Taiwan and China, will begin early next year to promote cross-strait cultural exchanges and democratic development.
Lo Wen-chia (羅文嘉), a former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator, who used to be one of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) aides, said over the weekend that he would join with Wang Dan (王丹), an exiled Chinese pro--democracy activist who was one of the leaders of the Tiananmen Square protest of 1989, to launch the new forum next month.
The platform aims to promote grassroots cross-strait exchanges under a transparent and democratic framework, Lo said.
“We hope our efforts will contribute to the cultivation of mutual trust across the Taiwan Strait,” he said.
Lo said a forum would be organized once every year to discuss issues related to cross-strait cultural issues, add that there would be academic exchanges as well as promotion of democratic development.
The first forum will be held in Taiwan and feature the participation of respected academics in Taiwan, China and other countries, Lo said, adding that the second forum may take place in Japan or South Korea.
In addition, Lo said academics, politicians and journalists from Taiwan and China would also be invited to meet in Taipei once every month to exchange views on topics of mutual interest.
Meanwhile, a quarterly magazine will be published and distributed globally, Lo added.
Speaking at the inauguration of a research center, Wang urged the DPP to adopt a more active role contacting the Chinese government and Chinese civil society.
He said that in addition to discussions on cross-strait policies within the DPP, the party should pay more attention to what academics are saying because they offer a very good perspectives on a number of issues.
Without a well-developed cross-strait policy, it would be difficult for the DPP to win the 2012 presidential election, Wang added.
In addition to the DPP, Wang said the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) should also listen more to academics.
Asked if he believed DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should visit China, Wang said it was up to the DPP to decide, but added that: “Having contact is better than having no contact.”
What mattered more, Wang said, was whom Tsai met if she visited China.
“It’s probably too narrow to interact just with the Chinese government or the [Chinese Communist] Party. [Tsai] should interact more with Chinese civil society,” Wang said.
Asked to comment on today’s visit of Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) and the negotiations between Chen and Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤), Wang responded by asking: “Who is Chen Yunlin?”
He then said he would not comment on Chen because the envoy was “a nobody” in China.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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