The next high-level cross-strait talks are likely to be held in Nanjing, China, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday.
MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) said as Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yun-lin (陳雲林), had agreed at their last meeting that the next meeting would be held outside Beijing, Taipei proposed that it be held in Nanjing.
Liu said the date for the meeting had not been finalized, but it would take place either next month or in June.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Both sides still needed to iron out some differences before the exact time and place of the meeting is settled, Liu said. He did not elaborate.
As the next round of Chiang-Chen meeting approaches, the MAC has also stepped up its promotion of the government’s cross-strait policies.
The council yesterday released TV commercials featuring Lai in Mandarin and Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) and Mandarin and Hakka. The 40-second and 90-second films, which begin airing on certain channels today, depict the cross-strait policy of the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government as closed-door compared with that of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration.
MAC Chairman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) said her council was like the “door gods” who welcome guests, ward off evil spirits and protect the family. All cross-strait negotiations would be conducted on the basis that Taiwan and the people come first, she said, adding that the government would do its best to protect the sovereignty and security of the nation when negotiating.
At a separate setting yesterday, Chiang said the government would talk about the possibility of opening more cities in China to cross-strait charter flights in the forthcoming talks.
As of last month, the average occupancy rate for cross-strait charter flights had topped 96 percent, he said, adding that the current 108 charter flights per week would soon be unable to meet the rising demand.
Chiang said officials at the Ministry of Transportation and Communications were negotiating with their counterparts on issues related to regular daily flights and additional airports that can be opened for cross-strait flights.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHELLEY SHAN
‘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
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
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
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS