Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) yesterday said that her party would mediate if cross-strait relations deteriorate after Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) assumes office on Friday.
Meeting with female KMT members in Kaohsiung yesterday, Hung called on Tsai to pay special attention to cross-strait relations, as “it is the most important of all the issues that have major effects on the nation’s development.”
Hung also said that Tsai should pay equal attention to economic development, otherwise her administration might face serious consequences.
Photo: Tsai Chung-hua, Taipei Times
“If cross-strait relations deteriorate or move backward because the incoming government that is to take office on Friday holds a different view from the KMT’s, the KMT would not avoid the responsibility to help mediate and would not just sit and watch,” Hung said, adding that the DPP and the KMT are not sworn enemies, but merely two contestants in the same race.
“I hope that the DPP would be good and the KMT would be better, so that voters would not have to choose the lesser of two evils,” Hung said.
However, she accused the DPP of changing its stance on various issues and called on it to apologize to the public.
“In the past, the DPP criticized the KMT’s proposed bill to monitor cross-strait negotiations and agreements, saying that [Taiwan and China] should be listed as two separate nations, but now it is retracting the comments,” Hung said. “The DPP said that US beef products with ractopamine are toxic, and now it is changing its stance as the ban on importing US pork products [containing ractopamine] might be lifted.”
“It once criticized the KMT and now it is following in the KMT’s footsteps — the DPP should apologize to the public for that,” she said.
Hung said the move to deal with ill-gotten party assets was a “false issue,” saying that the KMT “would not keep even a cent if it does not belong to us and would not give up an inch if it belongs to us.”
“The party assets issue should not be used for political manipulation,” she said.
Hung said that, as an opposition party, the KMT’s main foreign policy direction would be “staying close to the US and keeping a friendly relationship with Japan while making peace with China.”
“The US has always been our close ally; we need its support, but we cannot become its tool,” Hung said. “We should stay friends with Japan, while maintaining a peaceful and stable relationship with China.”
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS