Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday said his announcement that he would like to visit China was aimed at testing China's willingness to have political contact with Taiwan.
Wu was responding to questions on why he was willing to visit China at a time of tense relations following Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's (溫家寶) harsh criticism of President Chen Shui-bian (
Wen said both sides of the Taiwan Strait should communicate on the basis of the "one China" principle.
Wu said "Taiwan cannot remain silent when China has launched a drive to paint Taiwan as the party that hinders cross-strait dialogue."
He said after China enacted its "Anti-Secession" Law last March to codify its use of "non-peaceful means" against Taiwan should the country move toward formal independence, the international community raised questions about the move. But China adopted a "charm offensive" against Taiwan with the aim of misleading the world.
The international community has prodded Taiwan to engage in dialogue with China, making Taiwan the party that has to shoulder the pressure, he said.
Wu said government officials have repeatedly indicated that they are willing to visit China if there is no "one China" precondition.
But he said Beijing obviously had no intention of engaging in cross-strait dialogue because it had once again set the precondition of "one China" for talks.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
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An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
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
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