Six US scholars and former government officials, under the aegis of the US' National Committee on American Foreign Policy (NCAFP), reached Taipei yesterday after a visit to China -- as part of a "track two" program to facilitate diplomacy between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
While most of the officials declined to comment on Chinese Vice President Hu Jin-tao's (胡錦濤) current trip to the US, one member of the delegation did offer an opinion.
"I think the trip is positive. My own sense is that when US-China relations are on track, it makes cross-strait relations easier," Ralph Cossa, President of the Pacific Forum, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), told the Taipei Times. "Hu, as everyone expects, is going to be the next primary leader ... the sooner that he and Mr. Bush start developing a certain level of comfort with one another, the better off we are going to be," Cossa said.
Fresh from the group's trip to China, Cossa also noted what he called an "interesting" phenomenon with regard to the Chinese newspapers' coverage of Hu's visit.
"You got to get to the third or fourth page to find Hu's visit to the US. The front page was reserved for Jiang Zemin (江澤民). But it tells you that China has not tried to play this thing up, either. Hu is still fourth or fifth in the ranking," Cossa noted.
On the thorny issue of Taiwan, Cossa said: "If Hu tries to be tough on Taiwan during his visit, he will be doing it more for a domestic audience."
"If he came in and tried to be obnoxious about Taiwan, it would work very much to his disadvantage, because the Bush administration is not a group that you can get to kowtow by bullying them," he said.
The group visited Beijing and Shanghai before reaching Taipei for a five-day visit. The delegation is to meet President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新), Chairwoman of the Mainland Affairs Council Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and members of the National Security Council, sources said.
The group will also visit Taipei's Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), a think-tank called the Chinese Eurasian Education Foundation (中華歐亞教育基金會) and members of the foreign and overseas Chinese affairs committee at the Legislative Yuan.
The group also included NCAFP Trustee Donald Zagoria, former US ambassador to China Winston Lord, NCAFP President George Schwab; Robert Scalapino, professor emeritus at the Institute of East Asian Studies of the University of California, Berkeley and Derek Mitchell, a senior fellow at the CSIS.
Kurt Campbell, former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific affairs, who is senior vice president of the CSIS, cancelled his trip because of sickness, according to a foreign ministry official.
Aside from visiting both sides of the Strait, the think-tank has held biannual closed-door round-table meetings in New York on US-China ties and cross-strait issues since the 1996 missile crisis, when China launched missiles into the sea off Taiwan.
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
Taipei’s Ximending (西門町) shopping area welcomed the most international visitors, followed by Taipei 101, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park and Yangmingshan National Park (陽明山國家公園), a list of the city’s most popular tourist attractions published by the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism showed. As of August, 69.22 million people had visited Taipei’s main tourism spots, a 76 percent increase from 39.33 million in the same period last year, department data showed. Ximending had 20.21 million visitors, followed by Taipei 101 at 8.09 million, Songshan Cultural and Creative Park at 6.28 million, Yangmingshan at 4.51 million and the Red House Theater (西門紅樓) in
Renovations on the B3 concourse of Taipei Main Station are to begin on Nov. 1, with travelers advised to use entrances near the Taiwan Railway or high-speed rail platforms or information counter to access the MRT’s Red Line. Construction is to be completed before the end of next year, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said last week. To reduce the impact on travelers, the NT$95 million (US$2.95 million) project is to be completed in four stages, it said. In the first stage, the hall leading to the Blue Line near the art exhibition area is to be closed from Nov. 1 to the end
NINTH MONTH: There were 11,792 births in Taiwan last month and 15,563 deaths, or a mortality rate of 8.11 per 1,000 people, household registration data showed Taiwan’s population was 23,404,138 as of last month, down 2,470 from August, the ninth consecutive month this year that the nation has reported a drop, the Ministry of the Interior said on Wednesday. The population last month was 162 fewer than the same month last year, a decline of 0.44 per day, the ministry said, citing household registration data. Taiwan reported 11,792 births last month, or 3.7 births per day, up 149 from August, it said, adding that the monthly birthrate was 6.15 per 1,000 people. The jurisdictions with the highest birthrates were Yunlin County at 14.62 per 1,000 people, Penghu County (8.61
RSS