Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) called for a “cross-strait peace agreement” in an interview with the Hong Kong-based China Review News Agency published on Monday, and yesterday repeated the call to “properly situate cross-strait political status.”
Hung, who on Monday registered to participate in the KMT presidential primary, on Facebook yesterday said she decided to contest the primary to “establish a correct path for the Republic of China and the KMT.”
Saying that the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) political ideas are “destined to bring tension and crisis across the Taiwan Strait and deprive Taiwanese of dignity by making Taiwan uncompetitive,” Hung said she endorses carrying out political talks with Beijing, “signing a cross-strait peace agreement on an equal footing and based on dignity” and “establishing a cross-strait military mutual-trust mechanism.”
Hung was less reserved in the China Review News Agency interview.
“How long can the 1992 consensus hold if it stays where it is now? Are you to maintain the status quo forever?” she was quoted as saying.
A cross-strait peace deal and military mutual-trust mechanism, according to Hung, are the next step. With them, “we can let our guard down and move forward.”
China’s M503 commercial flight route — unilaterally established by Beijing — was described by Hung as “something that could give Taiwan more safety and protection,” as it is “a route for international civil, rather than military, aviation.”
“It would be even better to have more civil air routes between us so that [the Chinese military] could not easily approach us,” she said. “It is such nonsense to say that it has damaged our national dignity.”
Regarding a recent controversy related to China’s Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, Hung dismissed concerns that Taiwan would be slighted by the name under which it joins the bank.
“Either you have your dignity and full national name, or be marginalized. Which one do you want?” she said.
“It cannot be denied that China is a rising power and that it will replace the US to become the biggest economy by 2025. [Taiwanese] are of the same race and write the same words [as China.] Why do we not take the opportunity to stand on the giant’s shoulder?” she added.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.