Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Chairman Huang Kun-hui (黃昆輝) yesterday criticized President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) decision to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), saying he is “sacrificing Taiwan’s national interests for personal reputation.”
At a press conference at the TSU headquarters in Taipei, Huang accused Ma of breaking a promise he made in 2011 while running for re-election that he would not meet with China’s leader during his second term.
“Ma is sacrificing Taiwan’s national interests for his reputation, and the opaque decisionmaking process is defying both the legislature and the public,” Huang said, adding that the legislature must keep an eye on Ma and keep him in check after a new president is elected on Jan. 16.
Ma does not leave office until May 20.
Huang said that Ma cited “maintaining the ‘status quo’ and cross-strait peace” as the reasons behind meeting with Xi, “but at the moment, there are no armed clashes between Taiwan and China, and the ‘status quo’ is that China’s jurisdiction does not cover Taiwan.”
“The two reasons Ma has cited for the meeting do not exist,” Huang said. “A Ma-Xi meeting would not be a plus, rather, it would create an impression of ‘one China’ in the international community.”
While the meeting would not generate any actual benefits for Taiwan, it would only make things worse as China’s Taiwan Affairs Office announced that it would be an “unofficial meeting” under the ‘one China’ principle, Huang said.
“I do not see how that is meaningful for the nation,” he said.
Huang said that since Ma did not negotiate with the legislature and does not plan to make the meeting public, the president must clarify what he talks about with Xi and what promises that he might make.
Huang said he has requested that the TSU caucus boycott Ma’s intended report to the legislature and does not endorse any results from the meeting.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
The New Taipei Metro's Sanyin Line and the eastern extension of the Taipei Metro's Tamsui-Xinyi Line (Red Line) are scheduled to begin operations in June, the National Development Council said today. The Red Line, which terminates at Xiangshan Station, would be connected by the 1.4km extension to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, while the Sanyin Line would link New Taipei City's Tucheng and Yingge stations via Sanxia District (三峽). The council gave the updates at a council meeting reviewing progress on public construction projects for this year. Taiwan's annual public infrastructure budget would remain at NT$800 billion (US$25.08 billion), with NT$97.3
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
RSS