The pan-blue camp yesterday slammed the Mainland Affairs Council's (MAC) decision to ban reporters from two Chinese media outlets from entering Taiwan in response to Beijing's cross-strait policies.
"The government is prohibiting reporters from China to protest its passage of the `Anti-Secession' Law. However, this kind of tactic will have no effect on China, and will instead make others feel they Taiwan doesn't have any bargaining chips," said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesman Chang Jung-kung (張榮恭) yesterday.
Chang was responding to the announcement yesterday by MAC Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) that reporters from the state-run Xinhua News Agency and the People's Daily were now banned because of their inaccurate and biased portrayal of events in Taiwan.
Unless the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) uses tougher tactics such as cutting off cross-strait financial exchanges or forbidding Taiwanese businessmen from investing in China, then then banning their journalists will have little effect, Chang said.
The People First Party (PFP) also denounced the move yesterday and called on the government to reconsider the decision.
Media interaction across the Taiwan Strait over the past 10 years has been a positive element in the development of cross-strait relations, PFP spokesman Hsieh Kung-bin (謝公秉) said.
"This sort of strategy will not only go against the spirit of cross-strait interactions, but is also bad for the cross-strait reconciliation President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) has been pushing," Hsieh said.
KMT deputy spokeswoman Cheng Li-wen (鄭麗文) said that such negative actions and attitude from the government was not the way to solve cross-strait problems.
It is also not the responsibility of the government to censor the media, Cheng said.
"If the media is not objective, then that is the problem of a particular media agency. It is not for our government to decide," she said.
Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) called the policy "unwise." To increase understanding between the people on both sides of the Strait, Ma said, both governments should allow press freedom.
Ma said that if there was more press freedom, then Beijing would not have the impression that the majority of Taiwanese people are for independence, and would not have enacted the law.
The Taipei City Government yesterday confirmed that it has negotiated a royalties of NT$12.2 billion (US$380 million) with artificial intelligence (AI) chip giant Nvidia Corp, with the earliest possible signing date set for Wednesday next week. The city has been preparing for Nvidia to build its Taiwan headquarters in Beitou-Shilin Technology Park since last year, and the project has now entered its final stage before the contract is signed. Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said the city government has completed the royalty price negotiations and would now push through the remaining procedures to sign the contract before
Taipei Zoo welcomes the Lunar New Year this year through its efforts to protect an endangered species of horse native to central Asia that was once fully extinct outside of captivity. The festival ushering in the Year of the Horse would draw attention to the zoo’s four specimens of Przewalski’s horse, named for a Russian geographer who first encountered them in the late 19th century across the steppes of western Mongolia. “Visitors will look at the horses and think that since this is the Year of the Horse: ‘I want to get to know horses,’” said zookeeper Chen Yun-chieh, who has been
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said the name of the Taiwanese Representative Office in Lithuania was agreed by both sides, after Lithuania’s prime minister described a 2021 decision to let Taiwan set up a de facto embassy in Vilnius as a “mistake.” Lithuanian Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene, who entered office in September last year, told the Baltic News Service on Tuesday that Lithuania had begun taking “small first steps” aimed at restoring ties with Beijing. The ministry in a statement said that Taiwan and Lithuania are important partners that share the values of freedom and democracy. Since the establishment of the
‘T-DOME’: IBCS would increase Taiwan’s defense capabilities, enabling air defense units to use data from any sensor system and cut reaction time, a defense official said A defense official yesterday said that a purported new arms sale the US is assembling for Taiwan likely includes Integrated Battle Command Systems (IBCS). The anonymous official’s comments came hours after the Financial Times (FT) reported that Washington is preparing a US$20 billion arms sale encompassing “Patriot missiles and other weapons,” citing eight sources. The Taiwanese official said the IBCS is an advanced command and control system that would play a key role in President William Lai’s (賴清德) flagship defense program, the “T-Dome,” an integrated air defense network to counter ballistic missiles and other threats. The IBCS would increase Taiwan’s
RSS