The Executive Yuan yesterday criticized Beijing for reportedly planning to merge its office charged with cross-strait ties with the agency responsible for Hong Kong and Macau affairs, saying that it is yet another attempt to belittle Taiwan.
“Unlike Hong Kong and Macau, Taiwan is an independent, sovereign state, a fact that China has tried to undermine by putting the three together in the same sentence,” Cabinet spokesman Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said in response to reporters’ questions on the sidelines of a forum in Taipei.
The reported merger was Beijing’s way of blatantly undercutting Taipei, Hsu said.
Photo: CNA
Citing an anonymous source, the Hong Kong-based Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao on Friday reported that China’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office is to merge with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) as part of the Chinese State Council’s proposed reorganization that is to cut the number of Cabinet-level departments from 25 to 19.
The report also said that the semi-governmental Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits is slated to be incorporated into a new association tasked with handling “overseas Chinese compatriots.”
When reached by reporters yesterday, the Mainland Affairs Council — the TAO’s Taiwanese counterpart — said it would not comment on the Chinese government’s rearrangement, but would keep a close eye on it.
“We have noticed that there are various opinions and expectations regarding Hong Kong’s future. The government has never intended to, nor will it ever actively intervene in Hong Kong’s internal affairs,” council Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said.
It is the government’s hope that various sectors of Hong Kong, its government and Beijing could seek a consensus on the territory’s development rationally and peacefully, Chiu said.
Beijing has in recent years undergone several government organizational mergers and reforms in a bid to solve the problems of overlapping functions and poor cooperation between different branches, Chiu said.
The issue is expected to be discussed and finalized in the first session of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference in Beijing tomorrow, he added.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
STORM’S PATH: Kong-Rey could be the first typhoon to make landfall in Taiwan in November since Gilda in 1967. Taitung-Green Island ferry services have been halted Tropical Storm Kong-rey is forecast to strengthen into a typhoon early today and could make landfall in Taitung County between late Thursday and early Friday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, Kong-Rey was 1,030km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), the nation’s southernmost point, and was moving west at 7kph. The tropical storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 101kph, with gusts of up to 126 kph, CWA data showed. After landing in Taitung, the eye of the storm is forecast to move into the Taiwan Strait through central Taiwan on Friday morning, the agency said. With the storm moving
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work