Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday rejected a Chinese general’s claim that he had planned to conduct a military exchange with China, but that the plan was foiled by the US.
Ma had proposed that Taiwan dispatch four military officials to China, and Beijing likewise send four officials to Taipei to discuss “confidence-building measures,” People’s Liberation Army major general Zhu Chenghu (朱成虎) said on Monday, according to Chinese media reports.
However, the US prevented the proposed military exchange with its “five red lines,” which hindered progress in cross-strait relations, Zhu told an international security forum in Beijing.
Photo: China Review News Agency
The five red lines are: there cannot be a confidence-building mechanism between Taiwan and China; the two nations cannot unite over the South China Sea issue against other countries that have competing territorial claims; Taiwan and China cannot unite against Japan over the Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台) issue; they cannot conduct talks on military technology; and interactions between retired Taiwanese and Chinese military personnel cannot be institutionalized, Zhu said.
Ma’s office rejected Zhu’s claim, saying: “There was nothing of the sort.”
Representatives at last year’s Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Chinese Communist Party forum touched on the topic of confidence-building measures, but the discussions were limited to academic debates, the office said.
Confidence-building measures have been discussed as military confrontation between Taiwan and China has not officially ended, although bilateral relations have substantially improved from actual military conflicts to regular economic and cultural exchanges.
Following the 823 Artillery Bombardment on Aug. 23, 1958, China did not cease its sporadic shelling of Kinmen until it established formal relations with the US in 1979.
Military tensions temporarily intensified in 1996, as China conducted missile tests ahead of a presidential election in Taiwan, but there have been no military conflicts despite sporadic accidents.
Zhu said Washington opposes the unification of Taiwan and China, because it would strengthen Beijing’s position as a rival.
Moreover, Washington cannot stand being marginalized in cross-strait affairs and will continue to use Taiwan as leverage to rein in China and slow its development, Zhu said.
He added that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) would not declare independence, because that would endanger relations with Beijing, but Tsai cannot pacify the independence supporters among her Democratic Progressive Party.
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
URBAN COMBAT: FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-fired missiles from the US made a rare public appearance during early-morning drills simulating an invasion of the Taipei MRT The ongoing Han Kuang military exercises entered their sixth day yesterday, simulating repelling enemy landings in Penghu County, setting up fortifications in Tainan, laying mines in waters in Kaohsiung and conducting urban combat drills in Taipei. At 5am in Penghu — part of the exercise’s first combat zone — participating units responded to a simulated rapid enemy landing on beaches, combining infantry as well as armored personnel. First Combat Zone Commander Chen Chun-yuan (陳俊源) led the combined armed troops utilizing a variety of weapons systems. Wang Keng-sheng (王鏗勝), the commander in charge of the Penghu Defense Command’s mechanized battalion, said he would give
‘REALISTIC’ APPROACH: The ministry said all the exercises were scenario-based and unscripted to better prepare personnel for real threats and unexpected developments The army’s 21st Artillery Command conducted a short-range air defense drill in Taoyuan yesterday as part of the Han Kuang exercises, using the indigenous Sky Sword II (陸射劍二) missile system for the first time in the exercises. The armed forces have been conducting a series of live-fire and defense drills across multiple regions, simulating responses to a full-scale assault by Chinese forces, the Ministry of National Defense said. The Sky Sword II missile system was rapidly deployed and combat-ready within 15 minutes to defend Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport in a simulated attack, the ministry said. A three-person crew completed setup and
SHIFTING FOCUS: Investment in China fell due to increasing costs, the US-China trade war and China’s economic development slowdown, a spokesperson said The percentage of Taiwanese businesses investing in China has been steadily declining since 2010 due to increased costs, the US-China trade war and the slowdown of China’s economic development, Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) spokesperson Li Pao-wen (黎寶文) said. In terms of Taiwan’s total outward investment, the percentage of businesses investing in China has dropped from 83.8 percent in 2010 to 11.4 percent in 2023, 7.5 percent last year and 2.7 percent in the first quarter of this year, Li said in an exclusive interview with Liberty Times, the Taipei Times’ sister paper. Li said that 70 percent of these businesses experienced
RSS