The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is deliberately creating tension in the Taiwan Strait, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said in a report to the Legislative Yuan.
MAC Minister Chiu Tai-san (邱太三) is today to deliver a report on the development of the situation in the Strait amid US-China tensions, and answer questions from lawmakers on the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee.
Although the US and China have differences regarding the management and control of various issues, the situation remains stable, the council said in the report, which it submitted to the committee.
Interactions between the US and China on issues such as the climate, economy and trade, North Korea, Iran’s nuclear program and the Middle East, as well as their strategic competition in the Indo-Pacific region, would affect the situation in the region, the report said.
The CCP continues to reiterate its “one China” principle and deny Taiwan’s sovereignty, the report said.
Beijing has also said that only by recognizing its “one China” principle and the so-called “1992 consensus” could cross-strait relations become peaceful and stable, and the two sides engage in dialogue, thereby blaming Taiwan for the deadlock in cross-strait relations, the report said.
The so-called “1992 consensus,” a term former MAC chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese government that both sides of the Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has recently conducted several exercises in the region, the report said.
The PLA has claimed that its exercises in the Strait, which simulate actual combat, were aimed at safeguarding national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and were solemn responses to interference by external forces and “provocation” by the Taiwanese independence movement, the report said.
The CCP has deliberately created an atmosphere of tension in the Strait and used cognitive warfare against the nation, and intends to influence international support and the morale of Taiwanese, the report said.
Without communicating with Taiwan, Beijing unilaterally announced the so-called “22 measures on agriculture and forestry,” and China’s Fujian Province postponed an earlier decision to relax quarantine restrictions for Taiwanese, affecting the rights and interests of Taiwanese and Chinese, the report said.
Beijing’s continued use of a two-pronged approach of forcing Taiwan into accepting an outcome in cross-strait relations determined unilaterally by China while threatening Taiwan’s national security is the main source of instability in the Strait, the report added.
In the face of the CCP’s growing threat and challenges to the nation, the government’s policy has always been to maintain the “status quo” across the Strait, the report said.
The government would continue to carefully assess the situation, reinforce Taiwan’s defense, and defend its sovereignty, democracy and freedom, it added.
In the report, the council called on Beijing to face the realities on both sides of the Strait and respect Taiwanese public opinion.
It also urged Beijing to give up its compulsory propositions, and military and diplomatic oppression of Taiwan, and to handle cross-strait relations in a pragmatic way.
Beijing should assume responsibility in promoting positive interactions between the two sides of the Strait, and resolve differences through communication and dialogue, the council said.
AGING: As of last month, people aged 65 or older accounted for 20.06 percent of the total population and the number of couples who got married fell by 18,685 from 2024 Taiwan has surpassed South Korea as the country least willing to have children, with an annual crude birthrate of 4.62 per 1,000 people, Ministry of the Interior data showed yesterday. The nation was previously ranked the second-lowest country in terms of total fertility rate, or the average number of children a woman has in her lifetime. However, South Korea’s fertility rate began to recover from 2023, with total fertility rate rising from 0.72 and estimated to reach 0.82 to 0.85 by last year, and the crude birthrate projected at 6.7 per 1,000 people. Japan’s crude birthrate was projected to fall below six,
US President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday said that “it’s up to” Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) what China does on Taiwan, but that he would be “very unhappy” with a change in the “status quo.” “He [Xi] considers it to be a part of China, and that’s up to him what he’s going to be doing, but I’ve expressed to him that I would be very unhappy if he did that, and I don’t think he’ll do that. I hope he doesn’t do that,” Trump said. Trump made the comments in the context
SELF-DEFENSE: Tokyo has accelerated its spending goal and its defense minister said the nation needs to discuss whether it should develop nuclear-powered submarines China is ramping up objections to what it sees as Japan’s desire to acquire nuclear weapons, despite Tokyo’s longstanding renunciation of such arms, deepening another fissure in the two neighbors’ increasingly tense ties. In what appears to be a concerted effort, China’s foreign and defense ministries issued statements on Thursday condemning alleged remilitarism efforts by Tokyo. The remarks came as two of the country’s top think tanks jointly issued a 29-page report framing actions by “right-wing forces” in Japan as posing a “serious threat” to world peace. While that report did not define “right-wing forces,” the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs was
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported