Presidential Office Secretary-General Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) yesterday said that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is willing to report to the legislature after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore on Saturday.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said the legislature supports any conversation that is advantageous to cross-strait peace and regional stability.
The Presidential Office late on Tuesday said that Tseng and Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) would visit the Legislative Yuan yesterday to report on the meeting.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The official announcement of the Singapore meeting came only after the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) published an online exclusive at about 10:30pm on Tuesday that Ma was to meet Xi in Singapore during the Chinese leader’s visit to the city-state.
Presidential Office spokesperson Charles Chen (陳以信) released a statement after the Liberty Times published its scoop, saying the goal of the meeting is to “consolidate the cross-strait peace, maintain the ‘status quo’ of the Taiwan Strait” and that “no agreement would be signed or joint statement made.”
Tseng yesterday reiterated Chen’s statement at the legislature after he and Mao held a closed-door meeting with Wang, confirming that Ma is to hold talks with the Chinese president in Singapore, “exchanging views with [Xi] on matters concerning the consolidation of the cross-strait peace and maintaining the ‘status quo.’”
“The president would return the same day,” Tseng said.
“The president is to hold a press conference [today], and he has said that he is willing to come to the Legislative Yuan at its invitation after the Ma-Xi meeting,” Tseng said.
Mao said the meeting is a major political event, and “the Executive Yuan, under the principle of legislative supervision, has come to ask Legislative Speaker Wang to convene the legislative caucuses to be reported to on the matter by Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) and myself.”
Mao and Hsia met with the caucuses in the afternoon, although the Democratic Progressive Party did not attend because it was held behind closed doors.
The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) lawmakers attended for a few minutes and then withdrew in protest.
Wang yesterday morning said it was a good thing that “the Presidential Office and the Executive Yuan are reporting to the legislature on their own initiatives,” adding that “their proactive attempt to communicate with both the ruling and the opposition parties to earn their support is a move demonstrating their respect for the public opinion.”
“The ruling and opposition parties should put aside their partisan biases and oversee [the Ma-Xi meeting] rationally, with the public’s greatest wellbeing in mind,” he said.
Wang said he had three points to make about the Singapore meeting: “First, the leaders should meet on an equal footing and with dignity; second, the legislature supports any conversation that is advantageous to cross-strait peace and regional stability; third, the meeting has the nation’s full attention and we would hope the conversation, which is tightly connected to the nation’s development, could respond to the public’s expectations and achieve its end successfully.”
Asked if it was true that he only learned of the Singapore meeting late on Tuesday night, Wang said yes.
“I did not know about it until close to 12pm,” he said, adding that he had learned about it through the media.
However, Wang said that Ma had telephoned him about 5pm on Tuesday to say that Tseng and Mao would visit him at the legislature [yesterday] to discuss “important matters,” but did not tell him say anything about a meeting with Xi.
When Tseng called him about an hour later to arrange a meeting time, he did not mention the Singapore get-together either, Wang said.
Before Wang held his closed-door meeting with Tseng and Mao, TSU Legislators Lai Cheng-chang (賴振昌) and Yeh Chin-ling (葉津鈴) tried to interrupt, shouting that the Presidential Office’s decision was a “black-box” process.
“It is okay if the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] does not want the Republic of China [ROC]. We do not want it either. Taiwan is Taiwan. The KMT could [leave] if it does not want the ROC,” Yeh said.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it