The US wants to know the cross-strait aims of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration in its remaining months in office, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) told a news conference in Washington on Wednesday.
Speaking at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office on the last day of a visit to Washington, Hsia said he told the US that institutionalized cross-strait negotiations would continue through the Straits Exchange Foundation and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits (ARATS).
He said the US had expressed concern about two cross-strait ideas raised by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presumptive presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱): “one China, same interpretation” and signing a cross-strait peace agreement.
There had also been some concern about Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) stance on cross-strait relations, which some felt was not clear enough, Hsia said.
He said that the US is also attentive to how China views January’s presidential and legislative elections in Taiwan, and hopes that the “status quo” of cross-strait peace, stability and prosperity would continue and not be hindered by the elections.
He told reporters that he is scheduled to meet with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) in China in September.
“Agreements concerning taxation, flight safety and Chinese passengers’ transit in Taiwan are expected to be signed during the SEF-ARATS negotiations in August,” Hsia said.
Negotiations on an agreement on trade in goods, as well as issues on dispute resolution, will continue, while ecological concerns such as environmental protection and fish farming will be put on the table for the first time, he added.
When asked how negotiations could continue when a bill to establish a mechanism to oversee cross-strait agreements has not been passed by the legislature, Hsia said the 21 agreements inked so far have all been signed in accordance with the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例).
Since the oversight bill remains stalled in the legislature, the council is simply following precedents in cross-strait affairs, he said.
“The Executive Yuan is doing its job, which is to exert pressure on the Legislative Yuan to take action when the signed agreements are later referred to the legislature,” he said.
Hsia also said that cross-strait communications had not been disrupted by former MAC deputy minister Chang Hsien-yao’s (張顯耀) resignation in August last year and the ensuing scandal about espionage allegations, which were subsequently dismissed.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Many Japanese couples are coming to Taiwan to obtain donated sperm or eggs for fertility treatment due to conservatism in their home country, Taiwan’s high standards and low costs, doctors said. One in every six couples in Japan is receiving infertility treatment, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data show. About 70,000 children are born in Japan every year through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or about one in every 11 children born. Few people accept donated reproductive cells in Japan due to a lack of clear regulations, leaving treatment in a “gray zone,” Taichung Nuwa Fertility Center medical director Wang Huai-ling (王懷麟)
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
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