Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) yesterday fueled uncertainty over his party’s planned forum with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), saying he would not attend the annual meeting unless both parties could agree on an agenda.
Wu made the remarks on the sidelines of a get-together with members of the KMT’s Huang Fu-hsing (黃復興) military veterans branch in Taipei yesterday, about a week after the party announced that this year’s KMT-CCP forum has been scheduled for next month in China.
“[My attendance] hinges on the achievement of a general consensus between the two sides on the agenda and discussion topics. I also hope that preliminary conclusions could be reached beforehand,” Wu said.
“If I went and ended up walking away empty-handed, why should I bother to make the trip?” he said.
The consensuses he hopes to achieve with Beijing are ones that are conducive to the peaceful and stable development of cross-strait relations, which could help the government break the current stalemate across the Taiwan Strait, he said.
“Unless these preconditions are met, I will not arrange to travel to China,” Wu added.
According to a statement issued by the KMT on Tuesday last week, this year’s forum is to focus on issues concerning China-based Taiwanese businesspeople, as well as Chinese tourists and students visiting Taiwan.
The KMT-CCP forums began in 2006, when the Democratic Progressive Party was in power, and a year after former vice president and then-KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) visited China in April 2005.
It was originally called the Cross-Strait Economic, Trade and Culture Forum, but in November 2016 then-KMT chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) changed the name to the Cross-Strait Peaceful Development Forum “in response to the new situations across the Taiwan Strait.”
If Wu attends, it would be the first such forum he has participated in since taking over the KMT in August last year.
There is also the possibility of him meeting Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), as his predecessors, New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) did in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
However, as a former vice president, Wu is required by the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法) to apply for permission from the government to travel overseas in the first three years after leaving office.
A study published by online booking platform Expedia revealed searches for travel to Taipei have ballooned 2,786 percent following the lifting of COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions due to the city being a “designation dupe” for Seoul. The TikTok trend for duping — referring to substituting a designation for a more inexpensive alternative — helped propel interest in Taipei, it said in a consumer survey titled “Unpack ‘24,” which was conducted from September to October in 14 countries. Location dupes are “every bit as delightful as the tried-and-true places travelers love,” Expedia trend tracker Melanie Fish said of the year’s popular alternatives, which
SAFETY IN REGULATION: The proposal states that Chiayi should assess whether it is viable to establish such a district and draft rules to protect clients and sex workers The Chiayi City Council passed a motion yesterday to assess the viability of establishing a regulated red-light district. The council yesterday held its last session of the year, at which its fiscal 2024 budget was approved, along with 61 other proposals. The proposal to assess the viability of establishing a red-light district was put forward by independent Chiayi City Councilor Molly Yen (顏色不分藍綠支持性專區顏色田慎節). The proposal cited 2011 amendments to the Social Order Maintenance Act (社會秩序維護法), which stipulate that city and county governments can pass autonomous regulations on the sex trade to manage the industry and guarantee industry workers’ rights. A ban on the
A small-scale protest that called on the government to cancel its plan to welcome Indian migrant workers in a bid to tackle Taiwan’s labor shortage was held in Taipei yesterday. During the protest, comprised of a few dozen people staged in front of the Presidential Office on Ketagalan Boulevard, the protest’s chief initiator, a woman identified only as “Yuna” said they wanted the central government to reconsider allowing migrant workers from India to enter Taiwan. Most people in Taiwan had little knowledge about the potential plan to allow in Indian migrant workers until a report in the media last month, she
STABILITY AND CHANGE: Flagging in recent polls, Ko this week pledged to maintain President Tsai’s foreign policy, with an emphasis on improving China relations Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday reiterated that he is “deep-green at heart” in response to accusations that he is pivoting his campaign to align closer with the ideology of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the face of flagging polls. Ko made the remark at an agricultural policy conference in Taipei, repeating his comments from an interview with CTS News a day earlier. Ko told the CTS host that he would continue to pursue President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) national defense and foreign policy in general, but with an emphasis on establishing a rapport with
RSS