China said it would cooperate with Taiwan after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) claimed victory in his re-election bid on Saturday.
“We are willing to join hands with all walks of life in Taiwan on the basis of continuing to oppose ‘Taiwan independence’ and upholding the ‘1992 consensus,’” Chinese Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Yang Yi (楊毅) said late on Saturday.
“We hope to further new chances of development in cross-strait peace and jointly make a common effort for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” he added.
Zhu Songling (朱松岭), head of the Institute of Taiwan Studies at Beijng Union University said that a win for Ma was the preferred result in Beijing and could now pave the way for greater cooperation on economic and trade issues and even political talks.
While Ma’s re-election is a relief for China, observers say he could still face a tough second term, forced to balance demands from Beijing against local fears he is selling out.
During his first term, Ma oversaw the most dramatic thaw in cross-strait ties, with a sweeping trade pact signed in 2010, the Ma administration considers its greatest achievement.
The big question is whether China is satisfied with the current measured pace of talks
Or would like to see more boldness in Taipei, moving from economic issues to more sensitive political ones, such a peace treaty.
Complicating any contacts between China and Taiwan is Beijing’s insistence that Taiwan is an indivisible part of China and its determination to bring about reunification, even if it means war.
The next few months could be critical as China undergoes its own handover of power, according to Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), a political analyst at National Chengchi University and a former top China policymaker under the former Democratic Progressive Party administration.
“There will be a wave of pressure before Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) steps down in October as Hu seeks to establish a lasting legacy for his accomplishment in cross-strait policies,” Wu said. “We have not seen any change in Ma’s personality or leadership style over the past four years and he will probably be too soft to resist pressure from China and defend Taiwan’s sovereignty.”
However, policymaking in Beijing has become more sophisticated and Chinese officials are keenly aware of how a democracy like Taiwan’s works.
That means that Ma is likely to enjoy some leeway in how fast to move on rapprochement, said John Ciorciari, a Taiwan expert at the University of Michigan.
“China will press Ma for further engagement, but will try to not to back him into a domestic political corner that would invite a DPP victory in the next presidential election,” he said.
According to this view, Taiwan and China will continue to boost bilateral trade and investment ties, but be extremely cautious about any move that could be interpreted by the Taiwanese public as a step towards unification.
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,