Taiwanese netizens and politicians yesterday mocked a Chinese plan to build a transportation network linking Beijing and Taipei, calling it “science fiction” and “daydreaming.”
Their comments were in reaction to the Chinese State Council’s release last week of its “Guidelines on the National Comprehensive Transportation Network Plan,” which include several proposed transportation links, with one map showing a line running from China’s Jingjinji Metropolitan Region (Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei) across the Taiwan Strait to Taipei.
“This is the Chinese leadership daydreaming again of [fulfilling its] fantasy of extending China’s transportation network to Taiwan. I suggest people regard it as science fiction,” Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) said.
“It is China’s ‘united front’ propaganda machine at work,” he added.
“[Chinese leaders] believe that by building a transportation link to Taipei, the Beijing government can claim that Taiwan falls under Chinese jurisdiction,” he said.
“In Europe, they have highway and railway networks linking many countries. These transportation networks go from the UK, France, all the way to Turkey. Does it mean that people consider all EU member states connected by transportation as belonging to one country?” he said.
The Chinese plan says the highway and railway links would be completed by 2035, with the final phase of the project connecting Fuzhou in China’s Fujian Province to Taipei through an undersea tunnel through the Taiwan Strait.
Taiwanese pundits and politicians said that would be impossible given the political divide, as well as unrealistic because of the engineering, environmental and financial difficulties.
Taiwan already has very good road networks that provide convenient access, Wang said.
“On the other hand, corruption is rife in China’s transportation sector, and many government officials have been arrested for siphoning money off highway and railway construction projects,” he said.
“I suggest China look after itself, instead of always coveting its neighboring country,” he said.
“The State Council should be more ambitious by announcing a plan to build a road linking China to the moon,” he added.
Some netizens said that the Beijing leadership is deluded and daydreaming.
“It is propaganda for their internal consumption, designed to deceive their own citizens. Taiwanese can already can see it is a hoax,” one netizen who called himself Johnny wrote.
“I suggest China build a trans-Pacific railway connecting Beijing to Washington in the US,” a netizen surnamed Liu (劉) wrote.
“This shows that the ‘One Belt, One Road’ project is China’s dream to build transportation networks to Asia, Europe and Africa, to unite all these continents under Chinese motherland’s rule,” another netizen wrote.
‘FORM OF PROTEST’: The German Institute Taipei said it was ‘shocked’ to see Nazi symbolism used in connection with political aims as it condemned the incident Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 yesterday amid an outcry over a Nazi armband he wore to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case on Tuesday night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and apparently covering the book with a coat. This is a serious international scandal and Chinese
SECURITY: As China is ‘reshaping’ Hong Kong’s population, Taiwan must raise the eligibility threshold for applications from Hong Kongers, Chiu Chui-cheng said When Hong Kong and Macau citizens apply for residency in Taiwan, it would be under a new category that includes a “national security observation period,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. President William Lai (賴清德) on March 13 announced 17 strategies to counter China’s aggression toward Taiwan, including incorporating national security considerations into the review process for residency applications from Hong Kong and Macau citizens. The situation in Hong Kong is constantly changing, Chiu said to media yesterday on the sidelines of the Taipei Technology Run hosted by the Taipei Neihu Technology Park Development Association. With
A US Marine Corps regiment equipped with Naval Strike Missiles (NSM) is set to participate in the upcoming Balikatan 25 exercise in the Luzon Strait, marking the system’s first-ever deployment in the Philippines. US and Philippine officials have separately confirmed that the Navy Marine Expeditionary Ship Interdiction System (NMESIS) — the mobile launch platform for the Naval Strike Missile — would take part in the joint exercise. The missiles are being deployed to “a strategic first island chain chokepoint” in the waters between Taiwan proper and the Philippines, US-based Naval News reported. “The Luzon Strait and Bashi Channel represent a critical access
COUNTERINTELLIGENCE TRAINING: The ministry said 87.5 percent of the apprehended Chinese agents were reported by service members they tried to lure into becoming spies Taiwanese organized crime, illegal money lenders, temples and civic groups are complicit in Beijing’s infiltration of the armed forces, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said in a report yesterday. Retired service members who had been turned to Beijing’s cause mainly relied on those channels to infiltrate the Taiwanese military, according to the report to be submitted to lawmakers ahead of tomorrow’s hearing on Chinese espionage in the military. Chinese intelligence typically used blackmail, Internet-based communications, bribery or debts to loan sharks to leverage active service personnel to do its bidding, it said. China’s main goals are to collect intelligence, and develop a
RSS