A delegation to China led by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) sparked controversy over the weekend amid speculation that they might meet with top Chinese officials today.
It is rumored that the delegation has a “hidden itinerary,” which includes meeting Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Liu Jieyi (劉結一) and Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman Zhang Zhijun (張志軍).
The KMT has said that the group would not meet with top Chinese officials or discuss political issues during the visit.
Photo provided by the KMT
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said that the goal of the visit is to solve problems related to Taiwanese businesspeople, adding that he has not heard about a hidden itinerary.
The KMT mentioned to the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) before the trip that the group might meet with Liu and other officials, but did not specify a time or place, said a government official who asked to remain anonymous.
The MAC had tried dissuading the KMT delegation from visiting China amid Beijing’s military exercises around Taiwan and economic sanctions against the nation, the official added.
Hsia’s delegation arrived in China on Aug. 10, with some KMT members calling the timing of the visit improper, as it came shortly after China on Aug. 4 began live-fire drills in waters around Taiwan. The military exercises were in response US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s Aug. 2 to 3 visit to Taipei.
The KMT Culture and Communications Committee yesterday said in a statement that the delegation on Saturday completed their 10-day COVID-19 quarantine.
That night, the group dined with Xiamen officials and Xiamen Taiwanese Businessmen Association chairman Wu Chia-ying (吳家瑩), it said, adding that they held a forum to share ideas with Taiwanese businesspeople yesterday.
The statement said that Hsia had asked Xiamen officials to reopen the “small three links” to allow people-to-people exchanges across the Taiwan Strait, which were suspended in February 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The “small three links” are the ferry services connecting China’s Fujian Province with Penghu, Kinmen and Lienchiang counties.
The trip was planned because some Taiwanese businesspeople hoped to meet KMT members, as they had not visited China for years, Hsia said.
KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday urged Hsia to clearly state his stance against China’s drills and make the itinerary transparent.
Additional reporting by Tsai Si-pei
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the
RSS