President-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) pledged yesterday to seek closer economic ties with China and resuscitate the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) as a communication channel on cross-strait issues.
Speaking in English, Ma told a news conference at the Taipei Youth Center that he would prioritize closer economic relations after his inauguration on May 20, followed by confidence-building measures leading to an eventual peace agreement with Beijing.
He said the SEF and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), would resume their roles as negotiators on behalf of the two governments, adding that the KMT would have limited dialogue with the Chinese Communist Party under his administration.
"Dialogue with the Mainland will shift from party-to-party contacts to more governmental negotiations ... We hope we can [handle cross-strait issues] through the two semi-official bodies," Ma said.
In October 1992, representatives of the SEF and ARATS met in Hong Kong for a preparatory meeting that led to historic talks between then SEF chairman Koo Chen-fu (
SEF-ARATS dialogue broke down under President Chen Shui-bian's (
While promising to resume dialogue with China, the president-elect acknowledged the two sides' differences on the sovereignty issue, and promised to insist on "Taiwan-centric" principles.
"China remains the biggest threat to Taiwan's security, but [it is] also an opportunity in [terms of the] economy. I will seek to maximize the opportunity and minimize the threat," he said.
Ma said he would return to the negotiating table under the so-called "1992 consensus," and establish "confidence-building measures" to exclude the possibility of accidental confrontations between Taiwan and China before the signing of a peace agreement.
Ma stressed Taiwan's status as a "sovereign nation," and urged Chinese leaders not to compare Taiwan with Tibet.
"Taiwan is not Hong Kong, and Taiwan is not Tibet either. Taiwan [has been] a sovereign nation for many years. When they [China] talk about Tibet, they should not talk about Taiwan," Ma said.
"We elect our own president and parliament. It's very important for Beijing leaders to keep in mind that Taiwan is different ... China should stop political suppression in Tibet and we hope the situation in Tibet will be restored to normal as soon as possible," he said.
Ma reiterated that he would not rule out a boycott of the Beijing Olympics if the situation in Tibet deteriorated and said he welcomed Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, to visit the nation after his inauguration.
"He is a moderate and persuasive person, and a lovable Tibetan leader. He will be more than welcome to visit Taiwan," Ma said.
He also reiterated that he had no immediate plan to visit China and said handling substantive issues such as economic ties would be more meaningful than "ceremonial" meetings between national leaders.
He thanked US President George W. Bush for his congratulatory message and vowed to play the role of a responsible stakeholder and a peacemaker in the region.
Also see: Presidential election 2008: Taiwan NewsAlso see: Post-Election 2008: Editorials
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
WHAT WAS ALL THAT FOR? Jaw Shaw-kong said that Cheng Li-wen had pushed for more drastic cuts and attacked him, just for the outcome to be nearly identical to his bill The legislature yesterday passed a supplementary budget bill to fund the purchase of separate packages of US military equipment, with the combined amount of spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.8 billion). The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their legislative majority to pass the bill, which runs until 2033 and has two main funding provisions. One was for NT$300 billion of arms sales already approved by the US for Taiwan on Dec. 17 last year, the other was for NT$480 billion for another arms package expected to be announced by Washington. The bill, which fell short of the NT$1.25
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS