There is no distinction between doves and hawks in Beijing’s dealings with Taiwan, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Katharine Chang (張小月) said yesterday, after a lawmaker asked whether a recent leadership change at major Chinese think tanks dealing with Taiwan indicates a transition from dovish tactics to more hawkish ones.
Speaking at a question-and-answer session at the legislature, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Chiu Chih-wei (邱志偉) said that China’s National Society of Taiwan Studies and the Institute of Taiwan Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences recently had new heads appointed to lead the organizations.
“The new heads are different from their predecessors, who were academics or experts who have studied Taiwan’s economic, social and cultural affairs for a long time,” Chiu said.
Dai Bingguo (戴秉國), the new chairman of the National Society of Taiwan Studies, “is a veteran diplomat specializing in Soviet Union and Eastern European issues, and is a former Chinese deputy minister of foreign affairs, a former director of the International Department of the Chinese Communist Party’s [CCP] Central Committee and a former director of the National Security Leadership Group of the CCP Central Committee,” Chiu said, adding that Dai’s previous positions has no direct connections to cross-strait relations.
Yang Mingjie (楊明杰), the new chairman of the Institute of Taiwan Studies “is a counter-terrorism expert specializing in Asia-Pacific security and US-China relations,” Chiu added.
Chiu said he feels that the selection of people with foreign and security backgrounds over “dovish academics who have studied and frequently made exchanges with Taiwan signifies a shift to a more hawkish stance.”
Chang said the Beijing team that deals with Taiwan operates at a central level and consists of many members, including those from the Taiwan Affairs Office, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the military and national security agencies.
“China places its Taiwan policy on the same level as its relationship with the US,” Chang said.
Chiu said the think tanks could affect Beijing’s policies toward Taiwan and that the two institutions have never before been headed by people with foreign and national security backgrounds.
“This should give us an indication on how to adjust our strategy,” he said.
Tropical Storm Nari is not a threat to Taiwan, based on its positioning and trajectory, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Nari has strengthened from a tropical depression that was positioned south of Japan, it said. The eye of the storm is about 2,100km east of Taipei, with a north-northeast trajectory moving toward the eastern seaboard of Japan, CWA data showed. Based on its current path, the storm would not affect Taiwan, the agency said.
The Taipei Department of Health’s latest inspection of fresh fruit and vegetables sold in local markets revealed a 25 percent failure rate, with most contraventions involving excessive pesticide residues, while two durians were also found to contain heavy metal cadmium at levels exceeding safety limits. Health Food and Drug Division Director Lin Kuan-chen (林冠蓁) yesterday said the agency routinely conducts inspections of fresh produce sold at traditional markets, supermarkets, hypermarkets, retail outlets and restaurants, testing for pesticide residues and other harmful substances. In its most recent inspection, conducted in May, the department randomly collected 52 samples from various locations, with testing showing
Taipei and other northern cities are to host air-raid drills from 1:30pm to 2pm tomorrow as part of urban resilience drills held alongside the Han Kuang exercises, Taiwan’s largest annual military exercises. Taipei, New Taipei City, Keelung, Taoyuan, Yilan County, Hsinchu City and Hsinchu County are to hold the annual Wanan air defense exercise tomorrow, following similar drills held in central and southern Taiwan yesterday and today respectively. The Taipei Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) and Maokong Gondola are to run as usual, although stations and passenger parking lots would have an “entry only, no exit” policy once air raid sirens sound, Taipei
Taiwan is bracing for a political shake-up as a majority of directly elected lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) face the prospect of early removal from office in an unprecedented wave of recall votes slated for July 26 and Aug. 23. The outcome of the public votes targeting 26 KMT lawmakers in the next two months — and potentially five more at later dates — could upend the power structure in the legislature, where the KMT and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) currently hold a combined majority. After denying direct involvement in the recall campaigns for months, the