President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said he had no immediate plans to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) despite his intention to improve cross-strait relations, and repeated his call on China to remove the missiles it targets at Taiwan.
“I don’t think [a meeting with Hu] is an issue of urgency,” Ma said during an interview with CNN’s Talk Asia aired yesterday.
Asked if he would oblige if Hu invited him personally, Ma said the time for a meeting with Chinese leaders was not ripe.
Describing Hu and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (溫家寶) as “tough” but “pragmatic” leaders, Ma said dialogue between the two sides should be conducted by “white gloves,” a reference to the Straits Exchanges Foundation and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait.
Asked to comment on the implementation of the cross-strait weekend charter flights launched on July 4, Ma said the policy showed Taiwan’s determination to achieve peace and prosperity with China.
“The two sides were enemies for more than 60 years. Now suddenly they talk about tourism, they talk about exchange of students and trade. This is something very important and this is historic,” Ma said.
While seeking to improve cross-strait relations, Ma acknowledged that Taiwan’s international space and national security remained unresolved matters.
“These issues are very complex and are interconnected. We have already requested that the [about 1,300] missiles be removed,” Ma said.
“We don’t want to negotiate a peace agreement with the mainland under a missile threat,” he said.
Ma said it was important that Taiwan and China be willing to set aside disputes and proceed with more urgent matters.
On US-Taiwan relations, Ma said he expected the relations to remain unchanged after a new US administration comes into office next year, as the country would promote peaceful cross-strait relations.
“Whoever gets elected, they will look after US national interests in this part of the world,” he said.
In office for merely two months, Ma said the “rising oil and food prices” represented the biggest challenge to his administration, adding that he would shoulder his responsibilities as president.
Ma promised to lay the foundations for prosperity in Taiwan during his four-year term, adding that the country would have a bright future if his administration successfully improved relations with China.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RSS