The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday was evasive on why the administration was reluctant to protest Chinese vessels venturing into waters off the Diaoyutai islands (釣魚台), which Taiwan considers its territory.
MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) said the government’s position was clear and consistent and that the administration would do whatever it could to protect the life, property and interests of fishermen.
Taiwan lodged a protest against Tokyo on Tuesday after a Taiwanese fishing boat heading to the islands was turned back by seven Japanese patrol vessels.
Meanwhile, Liu denied speculation that Beijing was attempting to reach a political consensus with Taipei that both sides would focus on resolving economic issues through an institutionalized negotiation platform.
Liu said the most pressing matter at the moment was building mutual trust. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has made it clear that the two sides would not tackle political issues during his presidency, he said.
On the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement, Liu said the council on Wednesday had authorized the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) to begin negotiations on upcoming high-level cross-strait talks and on the formation of a cross-strait economic cooperation committee.
SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), are planning to sign an investment protection pact and an agreement on medical and health cooperation later this year.
Chiang, who left yesterday for a four-day visit to Shanghai and Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, said that the main purpose of the visit was to meet with Taiwanese businesspeople there.
He also plans to visit the Taiwan Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo and preside over a ceremony to erect a statue at a Taiwan-built Matsu temple in Kunshan.
In related news, Civil Aeronautics Administration Director General Yin Chen-pong (尹承篷) confirmed yesterday that China had approved applications by Taiwanese carriers for new weekly flights to Shenzhen, Fuzhou and Xiamen, adding that the matter of “red eye flights,” which had derailed plans to launch the new routes, had been resolved after Chinese airlines yielded some time slots.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY SHELLEY SHAN AND CNA
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
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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