Taipei’s protest against the inclusion of Taiwan in China’s pending National Security Law was expressed via Mainland Affairs Council Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言), but was rejected by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) at their first meeting in Kinmen yesterday.
Hsia told a post-meeting news conference that he conveyed the public’s dissatisfaction at the article about Taiwan in the law and a statement signed between China and Belarus, in which Minsk said it opposes Taiwan’s participation in international organizations that require statehood for membership.
Article 11 of the law stipulates that the protection of China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity is an obligation for “all Chinese people,” including the people of Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, and that no division is to be tolerated.
Photo: EPA
“I reiterated our positions about and the public’s negative reactions to [the two issues] and urged [China] to sympathize with the concerns of Taiwanese,” Hsia said.
Hsia said he told Zhang that China should show more kindness toward Taiwan with regard to the nation’s participation in the international community, because only by doing so can China contribute to the peaceful development of cross-strait relations.
Zhang responded by saying that what was stated in its National Security Law about Taiwan was in line with its policy, which has not changed for years, Hsia said.
“We voiced our displeasure and he explained his stance. That ended the matter,” Hsia said.
Last week, Hsia promised lawmakers at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee that he would protest the law.
Hsia did not do so in public, but in a closed-door meeting with Zhang.
In Hsia’s opening remarks before the meeting, he said that China should heed discontent among Taiwanese over issues related to “security” and “dignity,” without specifying any specific events.
“Especially some recent events related to Taiwan’s security, dignity and international participation that have raised concerns among the public,” Hsia said.
The first Hsia-Zhang meeting was the third set of high-level cross-strait talks since the first official contact between the governments on either side of the Taiwan Strait took place in Beijing in February last year.
Not much progress was made in discussions about Taiwan’s bid and nomenclature in the China-led Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Hsia said.
Given that the articles of agreement for the AIIB are still under discussion among its founding members, it was “still too early to” discuss these issues, Hsia said.
“With regard to the designation, we have repeatedly said that ‘Chinese Taipei’ is our bottom line. I am sure that they understand this well,” Hsia said.
At a separate post-meeting news conference, Zhang said that China “welcomes” Taiwan’s participation in the AIIB and its concerns.
“Related authorities will positively consider the concerns Taiwan has raised and stay in communication with Taiwan to explore possible ways for Taiwan to join the AIIB under an appropriate designation,” Zhang said.
On the request repeatedly made that China make Taiwan a transit point for its tourists traveling to other destinations to boost the nation’s aviation industry, Hsia was optimistic that technical issues would be ironed out mid-year.
“We hope to reach a consensus in the middle of this year,” Hsia said.
Zhang said that both sides should make preparations for Chinese tourists to transit in Taiwan to other countries, including “some measures to facilitate transit.”
When asked by reporters whether China’s repeated demand that Taiwan open the middle line of the Taiwan Strait to accommodate cross-strait flights would be one of the “measures,” Hsia said the issues were not linked.
Beijing has previously tied the transit issue to its demand that Taiwan allow cross-strait flights to take routes directly across the Taiwan Strait rather than either across the East China Sea or the South China Sea.
“There is no chance that we will open the middle line at this stage. The transit issue had nothing to do with the ban on flights passing across the middle line,” Hsia said.
They did not go into details of what the measures would be.
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for