Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday embarked on a three-day visit to Shanghai, saying that Taiwan and China have different values, so it is important for the two sides to have mutual understanding and respect.
Ko and Taipei City Government officials are to attend the 10th annual twin-city forum between Taipei and Shanghai.
Speaking to reporters before his departure, Ko said that in addition to exchanging municipal administrative experiences, the forum aims to show concern for Taiwanese living in China.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The event serves as an important exchange platform, as official cross-strait communication channels have been closed, he said.
“When there is such close interaction between people from the two sides, there should be an official communication channel, so that direct discussions can take place to solve problems when they occur,” Ko said.
Communication brings goodwill, and having goodwill toward each other can break the ice in cross-strait relations, he added.
Ko reiterated his “five mutual principles” — mutual recognition, understanding, respect, cooperation and consideration for each other’s interests — and said that the two sides have been politically separated for more than a century, so there is undoubtedly a gap between them and developing mutual understanding would take time.
“The Taiwanese values that I believe in are democracy, freedom, openness and diversity, which are the current system and lifestyle that Taiwanese are most concerned about, so they must be respected,” he said.
“There is a great gap between mainland people’s desire for rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and that values that Taiwanese hold dear — democracy and freedom — which shows the importance of the five mutual principles,” Ko said.
He hopes to convey the issues about which Taiwanese are concerned at the forum, Ko said, adding that he believes this could help break the cross-strait deadlock.
He praised Taiwan’s National Health Insurance system and said the nation should be allowed to attend the annual World Health Assembly as an observer, like it did previously, and attend the International Civil Aviation Organization.
In addition to protecting the rights of Taiwanese businesspeople in China, a consensus on the protection of personal freedoms and safety as stipulated in the Cross-Strait Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreement (海峽兩岸投資保障和促進協議) should be implemented, Ko said.
Taiwanese should also be allowed to visit family members arrested or jailed in China, he added.
Ko said he would think about Taiwan’s overall interests and people’s well-being when attending the forum, adding that something should be done to change the cross-strait relationship and direct it toward positive growth.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS