The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is looking forward to dialogue across the Taiwan Strait to avoid any misunderstandings and misjudgements in maintaining cross-strait peace, DPP spokeswoman Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) said yesterday.
The DPP remains committed to dealing with cross-strait issues and looks forward to conducting dialogue with China’s new leadership following the conclusion of the Chinese Communist Party’s 19th National Congress, Wu said.
The congress ended on Tuesday with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) emerging more powerful than ever after a leadership reshuffle and with no apparent successor.
In a speech at the congress, Xi maintained Beijing’s stance on Taiwan, opposing Taiwanese independence and saying that Taipei and Beijing can engage in dialogue if the “historical fact” that the two sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to “one China” is recognized, something the DPP has not been willing to do.
However, Wu told reporters after a meeting of the DPP Central Standing Committee that the party looks forward to engaging in dialogue with China’s new leaders to jointly protect peace in the Taiwan Strait.
The DPP believes that cross-strait politics should not infringe upon the welfare of Taiwanese and Chinese, and both sides should do their best to maintain cross-strait exchanges and other rights, including Taiwanese’s right to determine their own future, she said.
Emphasizing that Taiwan would not return to an age of resistance, Wu said that the DPP government would not cave under pressure from Beijing.
As this year marks the 30th anniversary of people-to-people exchanges across the Taiwan Strait, the DPP hopes that both sides will remember how far they have come on cross-strait relations and work together to preserve the peace, she added.
In 1987, Taipei lifted a ban on veterans visiting China, paving the way for decades of warmer ties across the Taiwan Strait.
Left-Handed Girl (左撇子女孩), a film by Taiwanese director Tsou Shih-ching (鄒時擎) and cowritten by Oscar-winning director Sean Baker, won the Gan Foundation Award for Distribution at the Cannes Critics’ Week on Wednesday. The award, which includes a 20,000 euro (US$22,656) prize, is intended to support the French release of a first or second feature film by a new director. According to Critics’ Week, the prize would go to the film’s French distributor, Le Pacte. "A melodrama full of twists and turns, Left-Handed Girl retraces the daily life of a single mother and her two daughters in Taipei, combining the irresistible charm of
A Philippine official has denied allegations of mistreatment of crew members during Philippine authorities’ boarding of a Taiwanese fishing vessel on Monday. Philippine Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) spokesman Nazario Briguera on Friday said that BFAR law enforcement officers “observed the proper boarding protocols” when they boarded the Taiwanese vessel Sheng Yu Feng (昇漁豐號) and towed it to Basco Port in the Philippines. Briguera’s comments came a day after the Taiwanese captain of the Sheng Yu Feng, Chen Tsung-tun (陳宗頓), held a news conference in Pingtung County and accused the Philippine authorities of mistreatment during the boarding of
88.2 PERCENT INCREASE: The variants driving the current outbreak are not causing more severe symptoms, but are ‘more contagious’ than previous variants, an expert said Number of COVID-19 cases in the nation is surging, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) describing the ongoing wave of infections as “rapid and intense,” and projecting that the outbreak would continue through the end of July. A total of 19,097 outpatient and emergency visits related to COVID-19 were reported from May 11 to Saturday last week, an 88.2 percent increase from the previous week’s 10,149 visits, CDC data showed. The nearly 90 percent surge in case numbers also marks the sixth consecutive weekly increase, although the total remains below the 23,778 recorded during the same period last year,
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is pushing for residents of Kinmen and Lienchiang counties to acquire Chinese ID cards in a bid to “blur national identities,” a source said. The efforts are part of China’s promotion of a “Kinmen-Xiamen twin-city living sphere, including a cross-strait integration pilot zone in China’s Fujian Province,” the source said. “The CCP is already treating residents of these outlying islands as Chinese citizens. It has also intensified its ‘united front’ efforts and infiltration of those islands,” the source said. “There is increasing evidence of espionage in Kinmen, particularly of Taiwanese military personnel being recruited by the