Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) yesterday met with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) in Beijing at the annual forum between the KMT and Chinese Communist Party (CCP), during which he proposed that cross-strait matters be tackled under the banner of “one country, two areas (一國兩區).”
Both Wu and Hu stressed the importance of continued cross-strait development under the “one China” principle. Wu said the two sides had different interpretations of “one China,” but both agreed to seek a consensus and put aside their disputes.
Wu said Taiwan’s current cross-trait policies are based on the Act Governing Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), which uses the concept of “one country, two areas” as its legal basis.
Photo: AFP
That the Mainland Affairs Council and not the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is in charge of cross-strait policy indicates that “cross-strait relations are not undertaken on a nation-to-nation basis but rather a special relationship basis,” he added.
Wu urged China to be understanding with regards to Taiwanese efforts to expand its international space.
Wu, who arrived in Beijing on Wednesday, defended President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) efforts to promote cross-strait peace and said the two sides should cherish what he called “the most peaceful and stable period” in cross-strait development for 60 years.
The annual forum, a regular meeting was established by then-KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and Hu in 2005 when Lien led an “ice-breaking” visit to Beijing.
When asked to comment about Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesperson Lo Chih-cheng’s (羅致政) recent visit to China, Wu said the KMT welcomed the efforts of all parties to promote cross-strait exchange.
“The KMT welcomes members from other political parties to visit mainland China for cross-strait exchanges and strengthening mutual understanding. Such exchanges will help reduce differences and form a consensus within Taiwan,” he said.
In his capacity as an academic, Lo visited China’s Yunnan Province last week to attend a two-day academic forum on cross-strait relations after receiving permission from the DPP. The visit was seen as symbolic because Lo was the first DPP official to visit China since 2008.
Additional reporting by CNA
China appears to have built mockups of a port in northeastern Taiwan and a military vessel docked there, with the aim of using them as targets to test its ballistic missiles, a retired naval officer said yesterday. Lu Li-shih (呂禮詩), a former lieutenant commander in Taiwan’s navy, wrote on Facebook that satellite images appeared to show simulated targets in a desert in China’s Xinjiang region that resemble the Suao naval base in Yilan County and a Kidd-class destroyer that usually docks there. Lu said he compared the mockup port to US naval bases in Yokosuka and Sasebo, Japan, and in Subic Bay
The majority of parents surveyed in northern Taiwan favor the suspension of all on-site classes at schools from the junior-high level and below amid a surge in domestic COVID-19 infections, parent groups said yesterday. About 84.4 percent of respondents in a survey of 2,912 parents in northern Taiwan, where the outbreak is the most serious, said they supported suspending classes, the Action Alliance on Basic Education, the Taiwan Parents Protect Women and Children Association, and the Taiwan Love Children Association said. The groups distributed questionnaires to parents in New Taipei City, Taipei, Keelung, Taoyuan and Hsinchu city and county from Saturday morning
ASEAN BATTLEGROUND: Japan and Australia could be drawn into Pacific tensions as China sets its sights on the Diaoyutai Islands and further beyond the first island chain Tensions between China and the US in the Indo-Pacific region are expected to intensify, the National Security Bureau and Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, recommending that Taiwan continue to emphasize its shared values and interests to encourage resistance to Chinese aggression. US commitments in the Indo-Pacific region are expected to continue unabated despite the war in Ukraine, as Beijing takes advantage of the conflict to expand its influence in the region, the agencies said in reports delivered to the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee on Sunday, ahead of a hearing yesterday on regional developments and trends. Although Russia’s invasion of
ONLINE REPORT: Confirmed cases filling out the online contact tracing report can check a box to indicate that a close contact had received a booster dose, an official said The guidelines for diagnosing COVID-19 have been revised to include people aged 65 or older who test positive with a rapid test that is confirmed by a healthcare worker, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said yesterday, as it reported 65,794 new local infections. The CECC had first announced the change on Monday, before publishing the new guidelines. Starting today, people aged 65 or older, regardless of whether they are undergoing home quarantine, home isolation or self-disease prevention, can be classified as a confirmed COVID-19 case by a healthcare professional, based on a positive result from an antigen rapid test, said
RSS