Kinmen and Matsu residents should not blame slow economic growth on restrictions on the "small three links" between Taiwan and China, a senior cross-strait affairs official said yesterday.
Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Vice Chairman Johnnason Liu (劉德勳) told a Central Broadcasting System (CBS) program that regulations on the links are only a minor part of the Statute Governing the Relations between the People of Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例).
Liu said the Regulation on Offshore Development (
The regulation underwent its largest-ever overhaul when the legislature passed amendments to it on Oct. 9. Yen Chien-fa (
They had planned to stage a demonstration in Taipei last Friday but later canceled the activity after negotiating with MAC officials. They held a public hearing in the legislature instead on the same day to urge the government to loosen restrictions on the "small three links."
"The `small three links' should not be directly associated with the islands' economic development. The islands' economic growth needs an overall plan," Liu said.
Direct transportation between Taiwan and China cannot be implemented if China is unwilling to negotiate about details of the plan, Liu said.
"Article 28 of the [cross-strait] statute has provided a sufficient legal foundation for direct transportation between Taiwan and China," he said.
"What truly blocks the progress of direct transportation is China's reluctance to negotiate with us. If they won't talk to us, direct transportation is impossible, even if we work out all supporting measures in 18 months," Liu said.
Liu said one of the goals of the amendment to the cross-strait law was to bridge the gap between cross-strait policies and reality.
"Over the past decade, the cross-strait situation has been changing fast," he said.
However, Liu said, the ups and downs in cross-strait relations have not slowed the cultural and social exchanges between the two sides. Many problems that the government could not foresee have emerged.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck Kaohsiung at 1pm today, the Central Weather Administration said. The epicenter was in Jiasian District (甲仙), 72.1km north-northeast of Kaohsiung City Hall, at a depth of 7.8km, agency data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effects of a temblor, was highest in Kaohsiung and Tainan, where it measured a 4 on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale. It also measured a 3 in parts of Chiayi City, as well as Pingtung, Yunlin and Hualien counties, data showed.
Nearly 5 million people have signed up to receive the government’s NT$10,000 (US$322) universal cash handout since registration opened on Wednesday last week, with deposits expected to begin tomorrow, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. After a staggered sign-up last week — based on the final digit of the applicant’s national ID or Alien Resident Certificate number — online registration is open to all eligible Taiwanese nationals, foreign permanent residents and spouses of Taiwanese nationals. Banks are expected to start issuing deposits from 6pm today, the ministry said. Those who completed registration by yesterday are expected to receive their NT$10,000 tomorrow, National Treasury
RSS