The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) new China policy is expected to be finalized in a China Affairs Committee (CAC) meeting on Jan. 9 next year, the party said yesterday.
However, the party was reluctant to call it a “new” China policy as the core values of safeguarding Taiwan’s sovereignty, among others, would remain unchanged and there would be only minor tweaks in its strategy in dealing with Beijing, CAC spokesperson Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said in a press briefing.
The committee, convened by DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), gathered for its fourth meeting yesterday for discussion of a draft report on the DPP’s China policy, but failed to finalize the report, Cheng said.
The report, containing five chapters — core values, bilateral engagement and the political positioning of Taiwan and China, economic strategy, civil society exchange and national security strategy — is expected to be finalized in the fifth CAC meeting on Jan. 9, he said.
The report would be an accumulation of the opinions and ideas collected from three CAC meetings and seven expanded meetings on China policy.
Participants of the meeting agreed that constitutionalism should be the foundation of all bilateral engagement, according to Cheng.
Meanwhile, the DPP’s Policy Research Committee executive director Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday morning rejected a report published by the Chinese-language newspaper United Daily News, which said that the DPP has reached a consensus to abandon its effort of seeking de jure independence for better relations with China.
EXPANSIONIST: China deploys an average of 40 to 50 warships and coast guard vessels daily in the South China Sea, despite pledges not to militarize the region, an official said China is attempting to expand its influence across the First Island Chain and increase pressure on Japan by sending coast guard vessels into waters off of Taiwan under the pretext of maritime negotiations with Japan and the Philippines, a national security official said yesterday. China’s recent actions in the waters east of Taiwan and Japan and the Philippines’ exclusive economic zones (EEZ) are attempts to establish dominance in First Island Chain waters, said the official who declined to be named, adding that this is “expansion disguised as law enforcement.” Framing China’s actions solely as a cross-strait issue is a serious misjudgment that
EXCUSES: Beijing is using government and research vessels as a pretext to harass the nation and enter its EEZ, and engage in ‘hegemonic expansion,’ the coast guard said The Coast Guard Administration yesterday said it drove away Chinese oceanographic research vessel Xiang Yang Hong 22 (向陽紅33) from restricted waters after warning it that it was in Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The Chinese vessel entered restricted waters off the coast of Yilan County’s Suao (蘇澳) at 11:35pm on Thursday, the coast guard said, adding that it dispatched the Lanyu patrol vessel and the boat PP-10077 to shadow the Chinese ship and issue radio warnings ordering it to leave. China has no sovereignty over waters off Taiwan’s east coast, Lanyu’s crew told Xiang Yang Hong 22 over the radio, and demanded
Several major reservoirs are estimated to have received 590 million tonnes of water inflow from June 4 to this morning, with storage levels at Wushantou Reservoir exceeding 50 percent and Zengwen Reservoir approaching 30 percent as of 9am today, data from the Water Resources Agency showed. Of the estimated 590 million tonnes, 450 million have already been stored in reservoirs, the data showed. As of 9am today, Baoshan Reservoir storage levels reached 100 percent, while Baoshan Second Reservoir, Yongheshan Reservoir and Techi Reservoir all exceeded 90 percent, data on the Water Resources Agency’s Web site showed. In addition, the Shimen Reservoir is at
BAIT AND SWITCH: Allowing KMT-run counties to sell to China while the threat of abrupt cancelations hangs overhead is another form of coercion, officials said Beijing is using agricultural purchase offers announced during the Straits Forum to deepen Taiwan’s dependence on the Chinese market, a Taiwanese official said yesterday as they criticized the Taitung County commissioner’s participation in the initiative. During the Straits Forum held in Xiamen on Saturday, Chinese officials announced a sales and purchase agreement for agricultural products from some counties led by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). Taitung County Commissioner Yao Ching-ling (饒慶鈴), who was barred from attending the event in person by the Mainland Affairs Council, participated via video. Under the agreement, China would purchase atemoyas, pomeloes, tea and grouper harvested in Taitung,
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