The most significant change to cross-strait relations in the 10 years since the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis has been the rise of China's economic and military might, academics and officials said yesterday.
China launched a series of missiles into the waters off Taiwan from late 1995 to early 1996 in reaction to the US issuing a visa to enable former president Lee Teng-hui (
At a conference held by the cross-strait Interflow Prospect Foundation to mark the 10th anniversary of the 1996 Taiwan Strait Crisis yesterday, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Vice Chairman You Ying-lung (
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
"The cross-strait military balance is becoming increasingly unbalanced and is tilting towards China, directly impacting the prospects for peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and the strategic balance in the region," You said.
You said that a political compromise between China and Taiwan would be difficult to come by in the foreseeable future, regardless of which political party governed Taiwan.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) takes a firm position on maintaining Taiwan's sovereignty and independence, You said, adding that even though the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is more amenable to the "one China" principle, albeit interpreting the "one China" as the "Republic of China," it would not necessarily make concessions to China.
Lin Wen-cheng (林文程), a former National Security Council adviser, said that the Sept. 11 terrorist attack was a turning point in which China reaped handsome political capital to become the US' partner in the global war on terror, with the result that it gained the upper hand in US-China-Taiwan relations.
"The US and Taiwan began to have differences on their understanding of a so-called cross-strait `red line.' Taiwan thought it knew where the line was, but the US kept taking a strict stance and pushing Taiwan back," Lin said. He added that, "Increasingly, the US fears that Taiwan will break a tacit agreement and overstep the red line."
Tung Chen-yuan (
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
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