To keep up the momentum following their victory in last Saturday's local government elections, pan-blue legislators yesterday resumed pressing the government to relax its China policy. Although the Democratic Progressive Party suffered an unprecedented defeat, it must not bow to political pressure, but must continue to uphold Taiwan's interests and maintain consistency in the country's China policy.
Yesterday, the pan-blues proposed that flights from Macau and Hong Kong should be allowed to make use of Taipei's Sungshan Airport. The pan-blues also want to put a "direct transport links" bill up for its second reading in the legislature on top of the "cross-strait peace advancement bill," which is already being discussed. These tactics are clearly aimed at compelling the government to compromise on all its principles regarding China. But the question we must ask is what benefit such compromises will bring to Taiwanese people?
The runway of Taipei's Sungshan Airport is too short to efficiently accommodate flights from Macau and Hong Kong. Quite apart from this, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications has indicated that the airport has already reached its capacity in handling domestic flights, and at best only eight flights from Macau or Hong Kong could be accommodated each day. Not to mention the as yet unsolved security question, and the crucial problem of China's unwillingness to negotiate with the government on direct cross-strait charter flights remains. In such circumstances, it is rather meaningless to open up Sungshan up to China, unless it is simply to precipitate the dissolution of the government's cross-strait policy.
Recent statements regarding the relaxing or tightening of cross-strait policy should be regarded as no more than pre-election rhetoric and not given too much weight. Moreover, these were only local government elections, so now is clearly time for the emotions of the campaign to be put aside and for cross-strait policy to be given mature and dispassionate consideration based on the best interests of the Taiwanese people.
The pros and cons of legislating for direct cross-strait flights prior to negotiating the principles of direct flights for cargo and passenger flights across the Taiwan Strait are perfectly clear, and the pan-blue camp's efforts to "slice off its own flesh to feed the vultures" will certainly meet with public censure.
The cross-strait peace advancement bill is an even bigger policy black hole, for it is not only illegal and unconstitutional, but it goes against the best interests of the people. If the pan-blues push this law through in the aftermath of their electoral success, they will bring disaster down on the heads of all Taiwanese.
As a legal expert and a former deputy chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), should understand the absurdity of such a law. Prior to the elections, Ma may have been unwilling to undermine pan-blue cooperation by making a clear statement regarding this law, but now, with Ma riding high on a wave of pan-blue support and the manifest decline of the People First Party (PFP), Ma should come out with a clearly stated position on this bill.
There is no need to make any concessions to the extreme ideas of the PFP and any assessment of the law should be made on the basis of the best interests of the Taiwanese people and with the goal of creating benign interaction between the government, the opposition and China.
In an article published in Newsweek on Monday last week, President William Lai (賴清德) challenged China to retake territories it lost to Russia in the 19th century rather than invade Taiwan. “If it is really for the sake of territorial integrity, why doesn’t China take back Russia?” Lai asked, referring to territories lost in 1858 and 1860. The territories once made up the two flanks of northern Manchuria. Once ceded to Russia, they became part of the Russian far east. Claims since then have been made that China and Russia settled the disputes in the 1990s through the 2000s and that “China
China has successfully held its Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, with 53 of 55 countries from the African Union (AU) participating. The two countries that did not participate were Eswatini and the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, which have no diplomatic relations with China. Twenty-four leaders were reported to have participated. Despite African countries complaining about summit fatigue, with recent summits held with Russia, Italy, South Korea, the US and Indonesia, as well as Japan next month, they still turned up in large numbers in Beijing. China’s ability to attract most of the African leaders to a summit demonstrates that it is still being
Trips to the Kenting Peninsula in Pingtung County have dredged up a lot of public debate and furor, with many complaints about how expensive and unreasonable lodging is. Some people even call it a tourist “butchering ground.” Many local business owners stake claims to beach areas by setting up parasols and driving away people who do not rent them. The managing authority for the area — Kenting National Park — has long ignored the issue. Ultimately, this has affected the willingness of domestic travelers to go there, causing tourist numbers to plummet. In 2008, Taiwan opened the door to Chinese tourists and in
Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Thursday was handcuffed and escorted by police to the Taipei Detention Center, after the Taipei District Court ordered that he be detained and held incommunicado for suspected corruption during his tenure as Taipei mayor. The ruling reversed an earlier decision by the same court on Monday last week that ordered Ko’s release without bail. That decision was appealed by prosecutors on Wednesday, leading the High Court to conclude that Ko had been “actively involved” in the alleged corruption and it ordered the district court to hold a second detention hearing. Video clips
RSS