Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) met with Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman Zhang Zhijun (張志軍), the party said yesterday, after KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) earlier in the day said that no such meetings would take place without first informing the public.
After a KMT think tank event, Chu said that Hsia would not meet with Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Liu Jieyi (劉結一) during his visit to China.
Chu was responding to media reports saying that Hsia was rumored to meet with high-level Chinese officials this week.
If Hsia meets with any high-level Chinese officials, the details of those meetings would be made public beforehand, Chu said.
Hsia embarked on a trip to China to meet with Taiwanese businesspeople there on Aug. 10, immediately after Beijing held unprecedented live-fire drills around Taiwan after a visit to the nation by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Hsia’s trip has drawn criticism not only from the Democratic Progressive Party, but also from within the KMT.
Chu said the reports were not accurate, adding that Hsia would say and do what is necessary in China based on the position of the Republic of China and Taiwanese.
Regarding criticism from within his party, Chu defended Hsia’s trip, saying that the easiest thing would have been to cancel the visit given that going to China at this time was bound to be criticized and potentially harm the party.
Hsia is visiting China with the aim of helping address issues facing China-based Taiwanese compatriots, students and businesspeople, and to solve problems encountered by small and medium-sized enterprises, farmers and fishers, Chu said.
He added that he hoped Hsia’s trip would help ease tensions across the Taiwan Strait.
“This is not for the party itself, but for the good of Taiwan,” Chu said.
Later yesterday, at a KMT Central Standing Committee meeting, Chu said that he had met with many visiting delegations from abroad, demonstrating that the KMT is pro-US, friendly to Japan and in harmony with China.
All of those relationships are indispensable, he said.
Chu said he always tells visitors that the KMT pursues a national security policy based on defense and dialogue.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday said of the trip that if a communication channel can be established during Hsia’s visit, it would benefit Taiwan in the long run.
“Of course, the KMT will be criticized, but for Taiwan, this criticism should also be endured,” Ma said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching