The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said the nation no longer has a smooth communication channel with China since the new administration was sworn in, as a cross-strait hotline remained ineffective during an incident involving a missile fired by mistake on July 1.
In a question-and-answer session at a meeting of the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee in Taipei focused on the aftermath of the incident, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Katharine Chang (張小月) said the communication channel between Taipei and Beijing no longer runs as smoothly as it did before the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration took office on May 20.
The council had twice contacted China’s Taiwan Affairs Office about the incident on July 1 and July 2. Both contacts were made via text message, Chang said.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Chang did not directly respond to questions as to whether China replied to the council’s messages.
The council on July 1 also authorized the Straits Exchange Foundation to send a fax to China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits to explain the incident, she said.
When asked by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) why the council did not contact its Chinese counterpart using the hotline, Chang said the council “had tried every possible means to communicate.”
The council did not dispatch officials to improve communication with China following the incident, but it is planning to implement more effective methods of communication, Chang said.
KMT Legislator Lin Li-chan (林麗蟬) questioned the government’s ability to maintain a smooth cross-strait communication channel, saying China had ignored the council’s messages and the government only seems able to communicate with Beijing through the media.
“Communication [with China] is not as smooth as it was. However, we think it is extremely important to have a stable communication channel following the missile incident,” Chang said. “I do not think such an incident would happen again, but we need to be prepared. We sincerely hope China could take a pragmatic approach to deal with such a ‘crisis,’ as misunderstanding can be prevented if there is a good communication channel.”
Responding to remarks made by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) that the missile was launched in the direction of China, Chang said the government informed the US of the missile incident before informing China. She said the council and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs performed their duties separately, but that the information was delivered to the US and China almost simultaneously.
Deputy Miniser of Foreign Affairs Leo Chen-jan Lee (李澄然) said the ministry told officials at the American Institute in Taiwan about the missile incident on the afternoon of July 1.
While Chang said a cross-strait hotline had been “disconnected” after the new administration was sworn in, DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said the hotline had also not been in use when former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration was in office.
“The government could not reach Chinese officials via the hotline when the Kenya case [in which dozens of Taiwanese were deported from Kenya to China for suspected involvement in telecom fraud in April] broke out,” Lee said, questioning whether China had unilaterally closed the communication channel.
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