Despite president-elect Ma Ying-jeou's (
On an invitation from the Friends of Hong Kong Macau Association, Mainland Affairs Council Vice Chairman Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) told the forum yesterday that since both sides of the Taiwan Strait have their own demands, breakthroughs in cross-strait relations such as a peace treaty or talks over international participation for Taiwan as Ma has proposed would be difficult to achieve, "unless one of the two sides is ready to make concessions."
"Ma has said Taiwan is a sovereign country, that the future of the country should be decided by its people and that independence may be one of the options for the people," Tung said. "But China insists that all negotiations be conducted under the `one China' principle."
Although Ma said there was a "1992 consensus" in which the two sides agreed that each could make its own interpretation of what "one China" means, "Beijing has never recognized the existence of the consensus and has even criticized it," Tung said.
"The core issue in cross-strait relations is not whether Taiwan should be independent or not, rather, it is the unwillingness of the People's Republic of China to recognize the reality [in the Strait]," he said.
The dean of National Chung Hsing University's Graduate Institute of International Politics Tsai Tung-chieh (蔡東杰) doubted that Taiwan would have the room to operate independently in cross-strait relations.
"I think the co-management of the Taiwan Strait by China and the US is the political reality at the moment," Tsai said. "In the past, Taiwan and the US were on the same side, but now Taiwan is in between the two powers and we don't really have a big role in cross-strait relations anymore."
At a separate forum hosted by Taiwan Thinktank yesterday, Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), an executive member of the research center and a political science professor at Soochow University, said that Ma's cross-strait policy puts Beijing at an advantage and whether the "three direct links" with China would materialize hinges on the willingness of China.
"Taiwan does not have any bargaining chips on the negotiation table," Lo said. "China is bound to demand an exorbitant price."
However, he said Ma should make good use of the 41 percent public support for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in Saturday's presidential election as a bargaining chip with Beijing.
While one of Ma's election platforms was to sign a peace agreement with China, Lo said the KMT administration could use DPP opposition as leverage and demand that the signing of any peace agreement must obtain the approval of the opposition and that of the people of Taiwan in a national referendum.
Li Ming-juinn (
Ma has a daunting task ahead of him to fulfill his campaign promises on ameliorating the cross-strait situation, as all his goals require consideration from Beijing, political observers said at another forum held yesterday in Taipei.
"Ma put himself in a very challenging position because his campaign promises require him to deliver on some of them soon after his inauguration," said Huang Chieh-cheng (黃介正), a professor at Tamkang University.
Jean-Pierre Cabestan, head of Hong Kong Baptist University's department of government and international studies, also raised a question: While Taiwan is making economic concessions to China in an effort to show its good faith in starting a dialogue, how much is China willing to relax its restriction on investment in Taiwan?
He said in many ways the KMT's "common market" could be unworkable because it requires "security symmetry" between the two sides.
London School of Economics professor Christopher Hughes said it might be too early to predict the future of the Taiwan Strait because "no one really knows what Ma is like as a leader."
"What are his real characteristics? Could be he the `Trojan Horse' as some people have called him?" Hughes said.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
PROCEDURE: Although there is already a cross-strait agreement in place for the extradition of criminals, ample notice is meant to be given to the other side first Ten Taiwanese who were involved in fraud-related crimes in China were extradited back to Taiwan via Kinmen County on Wednesday, four of whom are convicted fraudsters in Taiwan. The 10 people arrived via a ferry operating between Xiamen and Kinmen, also known as the “small three links.” The Kinmen County Prosecutors’ Office yesterday said that four of the 10 extradited people were convicted in Taiwan for committing fraud and contravening the Money Laundering Control Act (洗錢防制法), and were on the wanted list. They were immediately arrested upon arrival and sent to Kinmen Prison to serve their sentences following brief questioning, the office said.
PROBLEMATIC APP: Citing more than 1,000 fraud cases, the government is taking the app down for a year, but opposition voices are calling it censorship Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday decried a government plan to suspend access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小紅書) for one year as censorship, while the Presidential Office backed the plan. The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited security risks and accusations that the Instagram-like app, known as Rednote in English, had figured in more than 1,700 fraud cases since last year. The company, which has about 3 million users in Taiwan, has not yet responded to requests for comment. “Many people online are already asking ‘How to climb over the firewall to access Xiaohongshu,’” Cheng posted on
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
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