Taiwan's top official in charge of China policy yesterday called for Taiwan-US-China meetings on the "status quo" in the Taiwan Strait to seek clarity, saying the three sides define the same issue differently.
Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairman Chen Ming-tong (陳明通) said Taiwan and the US shared the same stance in opposing any unilateral change of the status quo, but the US, China and Taiwan have maintained differing definitions of what the status quo is.
Since the nations' perceptions of the status quo varied, it would be advisable for them to sit down and discuss the matter, Chen said.
He said it was difficult to understand why the US has said that the Democratic Progressive Party's bid to join the UN under the name "Taiwan" was a step toward Taiwanese independence and toward a change in the status quo.
Chen defended the administration's efforts to push for UN membership under the name Taiwan, stressing that the crux of the problem was that the nation has long been barred from the international community because of obstruction from Beijing, rather than the nation's title.
Entry to the UN was the common wish of the Taiwanese people, Chen said, adding that labeling Taiwan's plan to hold a referendum on its UN bid as a step to alter the status quo in the Taiwan Strait was extremely unconvincing to Taiwanese.
Meanwhile, the council said in a statement that China was attempting to change the status quo by threatening to use force against Taiwan.
China also continued to expand its military capabilities, posing a threat to security in the Taiwan Strait, while Beijing continued to promote its "one China" principle at international events amid continued efforts to squeeze Taiwan out of the international community, the statement said.
Describing China as the main destabilizing force in the region, the council said that Beijing had already altered the cross-strait status quo by jeopardizing and threatening Taiwanese people's basic rights, life and property.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
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