The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday demonstrated in front of the Presidential Office Building to protest President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), accusing him of breaking away from the institutionalized cross-strait negotiation system, while vowing to launch a recall campaign.
Joined by dozens of taxis, protesters held placards condemning Ma for his decision to meet with Xi in Singapore tomorrow and calling on Ma to resign.
TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said Ma’s rushed decision to meet with Xi has breached the institutionalized mechanism on cross-strait exchanges.
Photo: Edward Lau, Reuters
“When the historical cross-strait negotiations between the Taiwan’s then-Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫) and China’s then-Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits chairman Wang Daohan (汪道涵) took place in Singapore in 1993, I was Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) minister and Ma was my deputy,” Huang told the crowd. “The preparations for the meeting took a long time, with one preparatory meeting after another, while what to talk about and what would be the main objectives were clearly set.”
Huang said that the meeting only happened after both sides approved the issues to be discussed.
Transparency was the key to institutionalized negotiations, but this time no one knows what issues are to be discussed during the Ma-Xi meeting and the decision was a rushed one, Huang said.
“Ma said that he wanted to institutionalize cross-strait summits at the top level, but instead what he is doing now is breaking the institutionalized mechanism for cross-strait talks,” Huang said.
TSU Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) said the TSU caucus would immediately launch a campaign to recall the president.
“The law stipulates that a presidential recall proposal has to be endorsed by one-quarter of the legislature. At the moment, three TSU lawmakers have signed the endorsement and we will try to reach the threshold of 29 as soon as possible,” Lin said.
TSU Legislator Chou Ni-an (周倪安) said that when the legislature reviewed MAC’s budget proposals for the next fiscal year, MAC Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) said nothing about Ma’s planned meeting with Xi.
“We put forward a motion to restart the review of MAC budgets,” she said.
At 10am, when a press conference started inside the Presidential Office Building, the dozens of taxis at the demonstration blew their horns in unison in protest.
South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday declared emergency martial law, accusing the opposition of being “anti-state forces intent on overthrowing the regime” amid parliamentary wrangling over a budget bill. “To safeguard a liberal South Korea from the threats posed by North Korea’s communist forces and to eliminate anti-state elements plundering people’s freedom and happiness, I hereby declare emergency martial law,” Yoon said in a live televised address to the nation. “With no regard for the livelihoods of the people, the opposition party has paralysed governance solely for the sake of impeachments, special investigations, and shielding their leader from justice,” he
The Mainland Affairs Council and lawmakers yesterday accused a visiting Chinese university student of denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty by referring to the national baseball team that won a first-ever Premier12 title as “China, Taipei team” (中國台北隊). “We deeply regret the Chinese student’s words, that have hurt the feelings of Taiwanese... The Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, as the organizers, should remind group members not to use inappropriate words and behavior,” a council statement said. “We hope these young Chinese can accurately observe the true views of Taiwanese, which would be a positive development for interactions between young people on the two sides of the Taiwan
China is trying to set a "red line" for the incoming Trump administration and US allies by stepping up military activities in the region, a senior Taiwan security official said, including likely war games this weekend around Taiwan. China has held two rounds of war games around Taiwan so far this year, and its forces operate nearby on a daily basis. The official confirmed concerns expressed by other security officials in the region who have previously told Reuters that China could launch new drills to coincide with Taiwan President William Lai's (賴清德) trip to the Pacific this week which included visits to
PHONE CALLS: Two US lawmakers told Lai about the US Congress’ bipartisan support for Taiwan to preserve its democracy and freedom, and for stronger bilateral ties US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said during a telephone call with President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday morning that recognition of Taiwan is at the core of the US’ Indo-Pacific strategy, Presidential Office spokesperson Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said. The call marked the first time Lai had spoken directly with Johnson, of the Republican Party, since taking office in May. Lai also had a call with US House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of the Democratic Party and a videoconference with Republican Senator Roger Wicker while in Guam, during a stopover on his way back from visiting the nation’s allies in the Pacific,
RSS