Hopes of a Taiwan-China summit akin to a US-North Korea summit on Tuesday were “wishful thinking” and “mysterious logic,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) said yesterday.
Following US President Donald Trump’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, some media outlets have reported that similar summits with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) could end tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.
Local media have quoted Democratic Progressive Party sources as saying that the US would get involved in Taiwan-China relations in support of the party to ease tensions between the two nations.
Such reports demonstrate a gross misunderstanding of international circumstances, Ma said, adding that they were misleading the Taiwanese public.
Supporters of Taiwanese independence are the greatest threat to peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, as well as the greatest cause of harm to Taiwanese “compatriots,” he said.
“We have staunch determination, ample willpower and sufficient ability to thwart any conspiracies to split Taiwan away from [China]. We will defend the nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Ma said.
Asked if the leaders from both sides of the Taiwan Strait would meet, Ma was evasive, saying that the “Taiwan problem” was an internal issue and completely different from the relationship between the US and North Korea.
President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) refusal to acknowledge the “1992 consensus,” which is the embodiment of the “one China” principle, has caused a serious regression in cross-strait ties, he said.
The so-called “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese government that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
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Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
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