China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) yesterday said that the office has taken note of the “broad one China framework” (大一中原則) initiated by a group of politicians and academics in Taipei on Tuesday, but that it would not comment on it.
Instead, Ma reiterated Beijing’s stance on relations with Taiwan at a weekly news briefing, saying that both the Chinese “mainland” and Taiwan are part of China, even if the two sides of the Taiwan Strait are not yet unified, and their relationship is not state-to-state.
He urged Taiwanese to push for peaceful development between the two sides on the basis of the so-called “1992 consensus” on one China and their opposition to Taiwanese independence.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) insists that the so-called “1992 consensus” was reached during a meeting in Hong Kong in 1992 between Taiwanese and Chinese representatives, under which both sides claim to have acknowledged that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “one China” means.
The Democratic Progressive Party insists that the “1992 consensus” does not exist.
Ma sidestepped the question when asked if the “broad one China framework” proposal was consistent with the “1992 consensus.”
The “broad one China framework” was proposed by a seven-member group led by former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Shih Ming-te (施明德) on Tuesday.
The group said Taiwan and China should form an international legal entity — consisting of the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China — to deal with bilateral affairs by consensus.
They called the idea a modus vivendi that would help the two sides get around their political differences and move forward.
Also at yesterday’s news briefing in Beijing, Ma again nixed the idea of having the leaders of Taiwan and China meet on the sidelines of an APEC summit to be held in Beijing in November.
“A meeting of the two sides’ leaders is a bilateral issue and should not take place on an international occasion,” the spokesman said.
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) reiterated in an interview published by a Taiwanese monthly magazine on Sunday that the APEC summit would be a perfect occasion for a meeting between himself and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
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