Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and other Chinese Communist Party leaders are concerned about what might happen if the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) wins Taiwan’s 2016 presidential election, a leading US analyst said.
In a paper that might help calm Chinese fears, Alan Romberg, director of the Asia program at the Washington-based Stimson Center, said it is “fanciful” to think the DPP would move toward independence.
“In my judgement, the idea that moving to formal Taiwan independence could become a goal of a future DPP administration is fanciful,” Romberg said.
Taiwan experts in China “understand” it is not going to happen, he added.
What is not fanciful is that the DPP is unlikely to come up with a policy that is based on the “one China” framework, Romberg said.
Thus, if the DPP wins in 2016, Beijing would have to deal with “authorities who had not accepted the required framework for smooth cross-strait relations,” he said.
Romberg said that he “presumes” that China’s more urgent push for political dialogue with the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is meant to lock in a relationship based on a “one China” framework that cannot be reversed.
It will be interesting to see how the DPP plans to gain the support of the crucial electoral center if it became clear that China will not accept the party’s current approach as a basis for advancing relations, he said.
Romberg’s latest paper, published by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, said it is “doubtful” Beijing will ease off on its push for political dialogue.
Over the past few months, Xi may have gathered a clearer understanding of Taiwan’s political realities, he said.
However, Xi remains focused on achieving further development, including in the political realm, which “clearly continues to be high on his agenda,” Romberg said.
The Ma administration wants to maintain momentum in cross-strait relations and to make progress to the degree that it is possible, Romberg said.
However, public opinion must be taken into consideration in determining the pace of cross-strait exchanges and it is still too early to talk about political issues, he said.
Romberg says that both sides are interested in a Xi-Ma summit, but at this point their visions of the necessary conditions needed to pull it off remain “far apart.”
There has been speculation that in his new job as secretary-general of the National Security Council, outgoing Representative to the US King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) will focus on year-end local elections.
More likely, King will manage Taiwan’s entry into regional economic organizations and promote Taipei’s bilateral relationships, Romberg said.
“King’s responsibilities will also, however, relate importantly to advancing cross-strait relations, including the possibility of a Ma-Xi meeting,” Romberg 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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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