Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei City Councilor Wang Shih-chien (王世堅) yesterday demanded that the Taipei City Government cancel the annual Taipei-Shanghai Forum, saying that China has become increasingly blatant in its united front tactics aimed at infiltrating Taiwan since last year.
During a city council question-and-answer session with Taipei City Government Secretary-General Su Li-chung (蘇麗瓊) and Taipei Department of Civil Affairs Commissioner Lan Shih-tsung (藍世聰), Wang showed several photographs taken last year at a meeting between former Zhongshan District (中山) Office director Lin Ping-tsung (林秉宗) and Shanghai’s Minxin District (閔行) United Front Work Director Jin Mei (金梅).
One of the pictures showed Jin giving a speech to a room of Zhongshan officials.
Wang accused Jin of avoiding due procedure by contacting the district office directly to arrange her visit when she should have obtained the department’s permission before visiting, adding that there are central government policies governing visits by Chinese officials.
Referring to memorandums of understanding (MOU) signed at this year’s forum between Taipei’s Zhongshan and Shanghai’s Minxin districts and between Taipei’s Zhongzheng (中正) and Shanghai’s Jingan (靜安) districts, Wang said China picked Zhongshan and Zhongzheng districts because the former is the nation’s defense center and the latter is where the nation’s political headquarters are located.
The Ministry of National Defense headquarters, the Navy Command headquarters and the Heng Shan Military Command Center are in Zhongshan District, while the Presidential Office Building, Executive Yuan and legislature are in Zhongzheng District.
The MOU, along with the municipal government’s inaction over Chinese officials’ disregard of protocol, have created loopholes that allow China to “cruise into” the nation’s military and political headquarters, Wang said.
Wang said the forum was an ill-conceived policy by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) during his tenure as Taipei mayor.
However, under city councilors’ supervision, Hau adhered strictly to cross-strait exchanges and made sure that exchanges between Taipei and Shanghai remained at the local government level, Wang said.
For example, Shanghai sent household registration officials and sanitation engineers to Taipei to learn about the municipality’s work in those two areas during Hau’s term, he said.
However, since last year, China has changed its approach by sending united front officials, such as Shanghai Municipal Committee United Front Work Department Director Sha Hailin (沙海林), he said.
Accusing China of trying to assimilate Taipei and “blurring the line” between the two nations, Wang demanded that the city government discontinue the forum and that Su relay his message to Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
“Intercity exchanges are crucial to a global society,” Su replied.
Wang responded by saying that Ko has a “fetish” for associating with Chinese officials.
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS