The Presidential Office yesterday confirmed that Taipei and Beijing have been using unofficial communication channels, adding that all matters concerning the exercise of public power must be handled by quasi-official conduits and supervised by the legislature.
Presidential Office Spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said cross-strait exchanges and communications consisted of official and unofficial channels.
When public matters are discussed, Lo said, it is the remit of the Straits Exchange Foundation and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait.
“All official dealings with China are supervised by the legislature,” Lo said. “Everything is open and transparent.”
Lo made the remarks in response to a statement by former National Security Council (NSC) secretary-general Su Chi (蘇起), who said in an interview with the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday that Taipei and Beijing had secret communication channels.
Through secret channels, Su said, “the two sides can immediately handle incidents in the Taiwan Strait.”
Such an incident, Su said, could resemble the March 26 sinking of a South Korean navy vessel after an explosion tore through the frigate in the Yellow Sea.
Although Seoul has not directly blamed North Korea for the sinking, suspicion has focused on Pyongyang.
He did not elaborate what other type of issues Taipei and Beijing could discuss through backdoor communications and did not say when they had started.
Su was also quoted as saying that it was an “open secret” that there were cross-strait brokers during the presidencies of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), adding that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has both official channels in charge of administrative affairs and “secret” ones responsible for “non-administrative” matters.
He declined to elaborate on how the “secret channels” operate, saying only that the NSC did not play a part.
No NSC officials would comment on Su’s remarks and Su’s mobile phone rang unanswered yesterday.
At a separate setting yesterday, Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), a Mainland Affairs Council chairman during the Chen administration, said the DPP administration did not have any authorized “secret” communication channel or “secret envoys” to China.
Wu, who was also US envoy under the DPP, said Su was making groundless allegations, which he said were intended to undermine the DPP’s reputation.
Despite the Presidential Office’s reiteration of transparency in its dialogue with China, the DPP has said Ma often deals with China in a clandestine manner that hurts Taiwan’s interests, a charge Ma denies.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY AP AND CNA
The combined effect of the monsoon, the outer rim of Typhoon Fengshen and a low-pressure system is expected to bring significant rainfall this week to various parts of the nation, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The heaviest rain is expected to occur today and tomorrow, with torrential rain expected in Keelung’s north coast, Yilan and the mountainous regions of Taipei and New Taipei City, the CWA said. Rivers could rise rapidly, and residents should stay away from riverbanks and avoid going to the mountains or engaging in water activities, it said. Scattered showers are expected today in central and
People can preregister to receive their NT$10,000 (US$325) cash distributed from the central government on Nov. 5 after President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday signed the Special Budget for Strengthening Economic, Social and National Security Resilience, the Executive Yuan told a news conference last night. The special budget, passed by the Legislative Yuan on Friday last week with a cash handout budget of NT$236 billion, was officially submitted to the Executive Yuan and the Presidential Office yesterday afternoon. People can register through the official Web site at https://10000.gov.tw to have the funds deposited into their bank accounts, withdraw the funds at automated teller
COOPERATION: Taiwan is aligning closely with US strategic objectives on various matters, including China’s rare earths restrictions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan could deal with China’s tightened export controls on rare earth metals by turning to “urban mining,” a researcher said yesterday. Rare earth metals, which are used in semiconductors and other electronic components, could be recovered from industrial or electronic waste to reduce reliance on imports, National Cheng Kung University Department of Resources Engineering professor Lee Cheng-han (李政翰) said. Despite their name, rare earth elements are not actually rare — their abundance in the Earth’s crust is relatively high, but they are dispersed, making extraction and refining energy-intensive and environmentally damaging, he said, adding that many countries have opted to
PEACE AND STABILITY: Maintaining the cross-strait ‘status quo’ has long been the government’s position, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Taiwan is committed to maintaining the cross-strait “status quo” and seeks no escalation of tensions, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday, rebutting a Time magazine opinion piece that described President William Lai (賴清德) as a “reckless leader.” The article, titled “The US Must Beware of Taiwan’s Reckless Leader,” was written by Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia Program at the Washington-based Defense Priorities think tank. Goldstein wrote that Taiwan is “the world’s most dangerous flashpoint” amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He said that the situation in the Taiwan Strait has become less stable
RSS