A coalition of pro-independence groups yesterday expressed outrage over Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu’s (韓國瑜) visit to China’s Taiwan Affairs Office and liaison office in Hong Kong.
“China’s liaison office is a place where every chief executive of Hong Kong must report to after their election and Han’s visit was apparently meant to show support for China’s ‘one country, two systems’ proposal,” Asia University student Hsieh Hai-ching (謝海菁) said at a protest outside the Legislative Yuan in Tapei.
By offering to serve as a promoter for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Han is probably hoping to become president with the party’s help, she said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“Young people are very worried that Han might be elected president, because that could cause Taiwan to suffer the same fate as Hong Kong and undergo a series of sovereignty crises,” she said.
Han and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) must not “sell out” Taiwan, she added.
The protest, organized by the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan and more than a dozen student groups, drew about 30 people to Jinan Road, many of them holding placards that read “Say no to ‘one country, two systems’” and “China would give neither bread nor freedom.”
“With Chinese President Xi Jingping (習近平) clearly set on promoting ‘the great revival of the Chinese people,’ I find it anachronistic and unbelievable that certain people in Taiwan are backing the ‘1992 consensus’ and ‘one country, two systems,’ or proposing a peace treaty,” Sunflower movement leader Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) said.
He urged Han to explain when he returns home today what he had negotiated with the CCP while in China and called for the government to boost national security against Chinese infiltration.
Han last week led a 28-member delegation on a visit to Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen and Xiamen to promote trade.
While in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, he met with Chinese Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Director Wang Zhimin (王志民) and Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Liu Jieyi (劉結一) respectively.
Han is scheduled to return to Kaohsiung this morning.
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 KMT and the CCP that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
Many Japanese couples are coming to Taiwan to obtain donated sperm or eggs for fertility treatment due to conservatism in their home country, Taiwan’s high standards and low costs, doctors said. One in every six couples in Japan is receiving infertility treatment, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data show. About 70,000 children are born in Japan every year through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or about one in every 11 children born. Few people accept donated reproductive cells in Japan due to a lack of clear regulations, leaving treatment in a “gray zone,” Taichung Nuwa Fertility Center medical director Wang Huai-ling (王懷麟)
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
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