Viewing both sides of the Taiwan Strait as family is better than viewing them as enemies, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday, after the city’s Mainland Affairs Committee held its first meeting on Thursday night.
Although the committee’s members span the political spectrum, they had arrived at a consensus on the “premise” of any cross-city talks involving China, Ko said.
“The premise [of cross-city talks] is mutual love, trust and understanding,” Ko said. “Mutual love is viewing both sides [of the Taiwan Strait] as a ‘close family’ — a ‘close family’ is better than a ‘family of enemies.’”
The mayor’s reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) buzz phrase — “viewing both sides of the Strait as a close family” — is being interpreted as a friendly gesture to the Chinese government.
Xi has used the phrase to describe his vision for cross-strait ties in lieu of Beijing’s traditional terms such as “peaceful reunification” and “one country, two systems.”
Ko’s remarks come amid uncertainty over the future of the annual Taipei-Shanghai forums, which began in 2010.
Ko’s role in directing the forum has attracted interest over whether he, as an independent, will have more leeway in taking a position on the so-called “1992 consensus” that Beijing insists must be the premise of cross-strait talks, than someone from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) or Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would have.
Ko has thus far avoided taking a position on the “consensus,” which refers to a supposed understanding between the KMT and the Chinese government reached during cross-strait talks in 1992 that both Taiwan and China acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what that means.
Ko said the committee also agreed that there should be broader civic participation in cross-city talks, instead of just the business and corporate leaders who have been invited to past forums.
The mayor has previously also called for the forum to be expanded to include other cities.
Ko said that the objective of any talks would be to “further dialogue and increase goodwill”, while reiterating that they would need to be in accordance with his principle of “four mutuals:” mutual knowing, understanding, respecting and cooperating.
The city’s Mainland Affairs Committee is directly below the mayor’s office.
Half of its membership is from outside the city government, including former Mainland Affairs Council minister Chen Min-tong (陳明通), a DPP member, and Shanghai Taiwan Investors Association director Hector Yeh (葉惠德).
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS