The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday that it has no plans to organize a meeting between its leader and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) director.
TAO Director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) is scheduled to arrive for his first visit to the nation during the week of June 23, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) announced on Thursday.
The party also said that it believes it is “unwise” for Zhang to choose to visit the nation when the Legislative Yuan is set to hold a special session in which legislation relating to oversight of cross-strait agreements might be discussed.
No contact or arrangement is currently being made for DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to meet Zhang, said Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟), the director of the party’s China Affairs Department.
Chao made the comments after an offer by the Cabinet-level MAC to help contact the Chinese side, should the DPP want to meet with Zhang.
DPP whip Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said his party would always leave the door open for communication with China, provided there are no preconditions or “predetermined positions.”
However, Tsai demanded that Zhang apologize for a controversial statement made two days ago by TAO spokeswoman Fan Liqing (范麗青) that the future of Taiwan “must be decided by all Chinese people, including Taiwanese compatriots.”
The statement shows no respect for Taiwan and it has hurt friendship between the people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, Tsai said.
He added that it is unhelpful to the building of mutual trust, Tsai said.
The MAC is happy to help make the related arrangements because it is good to allow Zhang to increase his contact with local people during the trip and to understand their thoughts, MAC Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said.
TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT: A US Air Force KC-135 tanker came less than 1,000 feet of an EVA plane and was warned off by a Taipei air traffic controller, a report said A US aerial refueling aircraft came very close to an EVA Airways jet in the airspace over southern Taiwan, a military aviation news Web site said. A report published by Alert 5 on Tuesday said that automatic dependent surveillance–broadcast (ADS-B) data captured by planfinder.net on Wednesday last week showed a US Air Force KC-135 tanker “coming less than 1,000 feet [305m] vertically with EVA Air flight BR225 as both aircraft crossed path south of Taiwan” that morning. The report included an audio recording of a female controller from the Taipei air traffic control center telling the unidentified aircraft that it was
A series of discussions on the legacy of martial law and authoritarianism are to be held at the Taipei International Book Exhibition this month, featuring findings and analysis by the Transitional Justice Commission. The commission and publisher Book Republic organized the series, entitled “Escaping the Nation’s Labyrinth of Memory: What Authoritarian Symbols and Records Can Tell Us,” to help people navigate narratives through textual analysis and comparisons with other nations. The four-day series is to begin on Thursday next week with a discussion between commission Chairwoman Yang Tsui (楊翠), Polish-language translator Lin Wei-yun (林蔚昀), and Polish author and artist Pawel Gorecki comparing
MOVING OUT: A former professor said that rent and early education costs in Taipei are the nation’s highest, which makes it difficult for young people to start families The population of Taipei last year fell to the lowest in 23 years due to high rent, more transportation options and the expansion of northern cities into a single metropolis, academics and city officials said on Monday. Data released this month by the Ministry of the Interior showed that the capital was home to 2,602,418 people last year, down 42,623 from 2019. The decline is second only to 1993, when the population fell by 42,828 people, while Taipei’s population was the lowest it has been since 1997. Taipei saw the biggest drop among the six special municipalities, while Taoyuan led the group in
A legislator yesterday called for authorities to investigate the sale of Chinese-made, Internet-connected karaoke machines containing “propaganda songs.” Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃) said she was approached by a person who had discovered Chinese patriotic songs such as My Motherland (我的祖國) — which is commonly referred to as China’s “second national anthem” — in Chinese-made karaoke devices sold in Taiwan. The machines are popular, as they can connect to the Internet, providing access to thousands of songs, she said. One retailer, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the machines first entered the local market about three years ago, starting with