Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) yesterday paid homage to Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), the founding father of the Republic of China (ROC), in a visit to Sun’s mausoleum in the Chinese city of Nanjing and mentioned the ROC in his remarks despite Chinese officials and media playing down the comments.
Wang yesterday became the first ROC official to visit the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in his official capacity, on the second day of his four-day visit to China.
On Tuesday, Wang and his Chinese counterpart, Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍), held the first meeting between Taiwanese and Chinese ministers since 1949, when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) fled to Taiwan following its defeat by the Chinese Communist Party in the Chinese Civil War.
Photo:AFP
“It has been 103 years since Sun Yat-sen founded the ROC, the first democracy in Asia. We could in the past only pay tribute to the founding father in Taipei, but I am able to visit here today in my capacity as MAC minister,” Wang told reporters and the crowd in the Boai Plaza in front of the mausoleum.
Several Taiwanese pan-blue camp politicians had visited the mausoleum in the past in non-governmental capacities, including former Straits Exchange Foundation president Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤), former KMT chairmen Lien Chan (連戰) and Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄), and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
Taiwan Affairs Office officials were not accompanying Wang when he made the remarks.
In an eulogy Wang recited in front of Sun’s grave earlier, he mentioned Sun’s Three Principles of the People, the five-power Constitution and the so-called “1992 consensus,” also noting that people on both sides of the strait belong to the “Zhonghua” (中華) culture and it was imperative to “face reality.”
Responding to media inquiries about Wang’s remarks, Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) only praised Sun as “a great pioneer of China’s democratic revolution” without elaborating on Wang’s comments, according to China’s state-owned China News Service.
Chinese media, including the state mouthpieces CCTV and the Xinhua news agency, omitted Wang’s remarks about the ROC and the call for “facing reality” in their coverage.
Later yesterday, Wang delivered a speech to Nanjing University students, calling for closer youth exchanges across the Taiwan Strait and “peaceful coexistence.”
Wang’s visit to China so far has drawn mixed responses from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU).
DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday that while Wang and Zhang’s addressing each other using their official titles was “a small step for progress,” Wang’s failure to address human rights and the ROC in front of Zhang was lamentable.
In a press release issued late on Tuesday night, the DPP’s Department of China Affairs director Honigmann Hong (洪財隆) described the meeting as a “quasi-political negotiation” without authorization from Taiwanese.
Hong added that the nominal meeting had failed to reach substantial consensus on the issues of press freedom, human rights, investment protection and joint crime-fighting, among others.
TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said in a press release that Wang’s remarks about the ROC were only “self-amusement” because there was no Chinese official present and the Chinese media would not report about it.
Wang is due to attend a forum and hold talks with Chinese think tanks today before wrapping up his trip and returning to Taipei tomorrow.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain
When Paraguayan opposition lawmaker Leidy Galeano returned from an all-expenses-paid tour of six Chinese cities late last year, she was convinced Paraguay risked missing out on major economic gains by sticking with longtime ally Taipei over Beijing — a message that participants on the trip heard repeatedly from Chinese officials. “Everything I saw there, I wanted for my country,” said Galeano, a member of the newly-formed Yo Creo party whose senior figures have spoken favorably about China. This trip and others like it — which people familiar with the visits said were at the invitation of the Chinese consulate in Sao Paulo
RSS