Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) yesterday pledged to continue cross-strait negotiations under the principle of the so-called “1992 consensus” as he was re-elected to serve another three-year term.
Chiang, re-elected by the foundation’s new board of directors, promoted the government’s efforts in resuming cross-strait talks since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office three years ago and said Taiwan and China would continue to work together and seek peace across the Taiwan Strait.
“I had called for the resumption of cross-strait negotiations and the long-term development of peaceful cross-strait relations when I first took over as chairman in 2008 and now I can proudly say we have made great achievements in cross-strait ties,” Chiang said.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
Since 2008, the foundation and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits have conducted seven rounds of negotiations and signed 16 agreements, including the -Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement signed last year.
Chiang yesterday said the “1992 consensus,” which refers to what the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) says is a mutual understanding between the two sides of the Strait that there is only one China, with each side free to interpret what that means, has improved cross-strait relations in recent years and would continue to serve as a solid foundation for future cross-strait talks.
Former National Security Council secretary-general Su Chi (蘇起), who came up with the term “1992 consensus” when he served as Mainland Affairs Council minister in 2000, was appointed as a board member yesterday, sparking speculation about his role in leading political negotiations between Taiwan and China in the future.
Su yesterday dismissed the speculation as sheer assumption, saying that he took the position to assist the foundation with related affairs as a scholar.
“It’s over-speculation … My role in the SEF is very simple, and I don’t have any special missions. I think people are over-interpreting the position,” he said.
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching