Former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Lien Chan (連戰) said yesterday he had discussed the possibility of Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly (WHA) with Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) on the sidelines of the recent APEC summit in Lima, Peru.
Lien, President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) envoy to the summit, met Hu last Friday in what Lien described as “a meeting between old friends.”
They met for about 40 minutes at Hu’s hotel.
“One of the new issues my old friend [Hu] and I discussed was the WHA ... Although Hu did not specifically emphasize the WHA issue, he did reiterate China’s willingness to negotiate Taiwan’s participation in international affairs,” Lien said at a press conference at the Presidential Office.
Lien and his delegation returned from the trip yesterday and reported to Ma before speaking to the press.
Under the Ma administration, Taiwan gave up seeking full WHO membership this year, focusing on efforts to obtain observer status at the annual WHA meeting in May.
Lien said one of the five points in the communique he signed with Hu in 2005 was that Taiwan and China should exchange opinions and negotiate on Taiwan’s participation in international affairs.
Taiwan’s WHA bid will be discussed in cross-strait negotiations, but Lien dismissed allegations that China would only help with Taiwan’s WHA bid after the implementation of direct links.
Lien said the recent cross-strait talks were resumed under the framework of the “1992 consensus” and the concept of one China, with each side having its own interpretation, and it would be unnecessary to further stress it during future talks.
In addition to continuing to seek to sign free trade agreements with other countries, Lien said Taiwan would also be cooperate with the proposed Free Trade Area of the Asian Pacific Region (FTAAP) and other proposed multilateral trade agreements.
Lien said that in his meeting with Ma, he had conveyed world leaders’ expectations for Taiwan to maintain peaceful relations with China.
“Many leaders, including the US president, shared the same view on cross-strait relations, which is no unilateral change of the cross-strait status quo,” he said.
Lien said he also discussed solutions to the global economic slowdown with US President George W. Bush and other leaders, and expressed the country’s willingness to cooperate with other countries in confronting the financial crisis.
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
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