The political status of arrangements between Taiwan and China are expected to be hot topics over the next two weeks, with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members attending cross-strait affairs forums in Beijing in clusters after a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)-Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forum reaffirmed the “one China” framework as the basis of cross-strait engagement last week.
Former DPP chairman Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良), DPP Central Executive Committee member Hung Chi-kune (洪智坤) and several academics who served in the former DPP administration, are among the Taiwanese participants in a forum to be held in Shanghai on Thursday and Friday.
Participation in events like this is no longer a taboo within the DPP, which now only requests advanced notification from members who are to attend academic forums or other events related to cross-strait affairs so the party can better engage Beijing.
The focus of the forum could center around the political relationship between Taiwan and China, after KMT honorary chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) last week made a splash with his parroting of the “one China” framework, which the DPP vehemently opposes.
Hsu, who advocates a modest China policy, said yesterday that he planned to bring up his initiative of a China Council — based on the European Council model — in the forum, backed by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office and the Institute of Taiwan Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The 72-year-old said the initiative would make the DPP “an attacker” with creative proposals on China policy, which could find the best solution to protect Taiwan’s “status quo” if the “one China” framework is inevitable.
Hung, who is already in Shanghai, wrote on his Facebook page that participants are attending the forum in a private capacity and would only speak on that basis.
“The ‘one China’ framework upheld by the KMT and the CCP is based on nationalism. I don’t think nationalism alone could persuade the Taiwanese into accepting the arrangement,” Hung said.
He added that discussions of a political endgame would only be possible when both sides of the Taiwan Strait share similar values on freedom, democracy and human rights.
Meanwhile, former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) is scheduled to attend a two-day forum in Hong Kong on June 29 and 30. The forum is being organized by Hsieh’s Taiwan Reform Foundation and the Institute of Taiwan Studies.
The forum is another attempt by Hsieh to foster closer DPP-CCP ties since his visit to Beijing in October last year as the first senior DPP politician to visit China.
Hsieh, also a moderate on China policy, has been advocating a “two sides, two constitutions” (兩岸兩憲) initiative, saying that both sides should be able to recognize the legitimacy of each other’s constitutions and strengthen bilateral ties.
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
UPDATED TEST: The new rules aim to assess drivers’ awareness of risky behaviors and how they respond under certain circumstances, the Highway Bureau said Driver’s license applicants who fail to yield to pedestrians at intersections or to check blind spots, or omit pointing-and-calling procedures would fail the driving test, the Highway Bureau said yesterday. The change is set to be implemented at the end of the month, and is part of the bureau’s reform of the driving portion of the test, which has been criticized for failing to assess whether drivers can operate vehicles safely. Sedan drivers would be tested regarding yielding to pedestrians and turning their heads to check blind spots, while drivers of large vehicles would be tested on their familiarity with pointing-and-calling
A Taiwanese man apologized on Friday after saying in a social media post that he worked with Australia to provide scouting reports on Taiwan’s team, enabling Australia’s victory in this year’s World Baseball Classic (WBC), saying it was a joke and that he did not hold any position with foreign teams or Taiwan’s sports training center. Chen Po-hao (陳柏豪) drew the rage of many Taiwan baseball fans when he posted online on Thursday night, claiming credit for Australia’s 3-0 win over Taiwan in the opening game for Pool C, saying he worked as a physical therapist with the national team and
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
RSS