Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) promised to protest against China’s attempt to open contentious air routes, which are considered a threat to the nation’s sovereignty, at upcoming high-level cross-strait talks, but insisted that the negotiations should not get bogged down by the issue, a lawmaker said yesterday.
Wang has failed to agree to the Taiwan Solidarity Union’s (TSU) demand that he cut off negotiations with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) if Beijing refuses to cancel the decision to open the routes on March 5, TSU Legislator Lai Cheng-chang (賴振昌) said.
Lai made the remarks after attending a closed-meeting meeting yesterday, at which Wang briefed Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and whips in each party caucus on issues set to be raised at the cross-strait summit in Kinmen this weekend.
Wang Yu-chi rejected another TSU demand that the list of the 33-member Chinese delegation be shared with lawmakers, citing a concern that it could be leaked to the media, Lai said. However, a compromise was reached after he agreed to give Wang Jin-pyng the information for his eyes only.
“We wanted to make sure that no one associated with the People’s Liberation Army or Chinese intelligence is among the entourage, because Kinmen is an armed military fortress on the front line of the Taiwan Strait,” Lai said.
Council Planning Department Director Hu Ai-ling (胡愛玲) dismissed the concern that the Chinese delegation would make use of the trip to Kinmen to spy on sensitive military facilities, saying that the group would be escorted by Taiwanese officials throughout the trip.
The legislature adopted a resolution on Jan. 16 denouncing China’s unilateral announcement on Jan. 12 to open a north-south M503 route that runs close to the median line of the Taiwan Strait, coming as close to it as 7.8km, and to establish three more routes — W121, W122 and W123 — that run east-west and serve as feeder routes for the M503.
During the briefing, Wang Yu-chi told lawmakers that he would sternly express Taiwan’s stance opposing the designated routes at his meeting with Zhang, Wang Jin-pyng told reporters yesterday.
Wang Yu-chi and Zhang would address allegedly illegal fishing by Chinese vessels in waters off Kinmen, alleged illegal beach sand mining by Chinese boats, large amounts of trash from China washing up on Kinmen beaches and boosting Kinmen’s tourism, council spokesperson Wu Mei-hung (吳美紅) said.
The meeting between Wang Yu-chi and Zhang is to be the third meeting between the two men.
They met in Nanjing in February last year, the first time government ministers from across the Taiwan Strait held talks in their official capacities since 1949.
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