Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday urged the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to refrain from opposing anything relating to China, saying a planned meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) would help ameliorate cross-strait hostility.
Chu made the remarks during a visit to KMT legislative candidate Chen Shu-huey’s (陳淑慧) campaign headquarters in Tainan.
The Presidential Office on Tuesday evening confirmed an exclusive report in the Liberty Times, (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) that said Ma and Xi have agreed to an unprecedented meeting on Saturday in Singapore.
Photo: CNA
The meeting would be the first official meeting between the leaders of the two sides across the Taiwan Strait since the then-ROC government’s retreated to Taiwan in 1949 after they were defeated by Chinese Communist Party forces in the Chinese Civil War.
“Endeavors have been made to set up a meeting between Ma and Xi for two years. President Ma has informed me that such a meeting has been agreed to. This is a significant milestone in the development of a mechanism to promote cross-strait peace and mutual trust,” Chu said.
Chu, who replaced Ma as KMT chairman after the party’s landslide defeat in the nine-in-one elections last year, said the meeting would not only bring relations based on the “1992 consensus” to the next level, but also help reduce animosity between the sides.
“It also bodes well for cross-strait negotiations on the proposed trade in goods agreement and the government’s much-anticipated proposal to allow Chinese traveling by plane to transit in Taiwan en route to other nations,” he said.
The “1992 consensus” refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese government that both sides of the Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Despite former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi’s (蘇起) subsequent admission in 2006 that the consensus was a term he made up in 2000, it has been the KMT’s cornerstone for engaging with China.
Describing the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) characterization of the Ma-Xi summit as “sneaky and secretive,” Chu said the Presidential Office is to hold an international press conference today to brief the public on the president’s schedule.
“The pan-green camp is urged not to take issue with anything regarding China. This concerns the development and stability of cross-strait ties and there must not be any political manipulation involved,” Chu said.
Asked whether the closely-watched meeting would have any impact on his upcoming seven-day visit to the US, Chu said the landmark summit between the two leaders is a scheduled event, while he is set to depart for the US on Tuesday next week.
Chu said he is to visit four cities, including Los Angeles, Washington, New York and San Francisco, where he is set to meet with US government officials and Taiwanese expatriates.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS