Former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) on Monday told the top Chinese Communist Party (CCP) official in Chongqing that both sides of the Taiwan Strait have a responsibility to ensure that exchanges between their young people continue.
Ma, who served as president from 2008 to 2016, is leading a delegation of students from Taiwan to visit historical sites and meet their counterparts in China from Monday last week to Friday.
In a meeting at the Yuzhou State Guest Hotel with CCP Secretary of Chongqing Yuan Jiajun (袁家軍), Ma praised the “modernity” of the southwestern Chinese city, which he said would make it an attractive destination for Taiwanese businesspeople and enterprises.
Photo courtesy of the office of Ma Ying-jeou
Ma said he was very concerned that exchanges between students from Taiwan and China have all but ceased over the past few years due to the COVID-19 pandemic and cross-strait political turmoil, while the enmity between people on the two sides of the Strait has grown.
He contrasted this with his own visit, which he said was intended to facilitate exchanges between students from Taiwan and China, and reduce negative feelings on both sides, which is essential for achieving “real peace.”
Judging by his recent visits to Wuhan and Hunan universities, the trip has so far been a success, Ma said, adding that after each event, students from both sides rushed “unstoppably” to swap WeChat contact details.
“Secretary Yuan, this is the truest and most genuine face of young people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, and both sides have a responsibility to ensure these types of exchanges continue,” Ma said.
Yuan said that “Mr Ma” had repeatedly spoken during his visit in support of the so-called “1992 consensus” and increased cross-strait exchanges, and against Taiwanese independence, in line with his long-held positions on those issues.
The “1992 consensus” — a term that 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 CCP that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
FAMILY TIES
Ma said that Chongqing holds special significance for him, as his parents met as students at the city’s Central Politics School.
He said his father later joined the Republic of China Armed Forces and both of his parents lived through the devastating Japanese bombing of Chongqing.
Ma yesterday visited a museum dedicated to the bombing.
He called the exclusive bombing of civilians by Japan “abhorrent,” and said on two occasions that the nation was punished for its actions.
Today, Ma is to travel to Shanghai, the last stop on his tour of China.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong effective from 5:30pm, while local governments canceled school and work for tomorrow. A land warning is expected to be issued tomorrow morning before it is expected to make landfall on Wednesday, the agency said. Taoyuan, and well as Yilan, Hualien and Penghu counties canceled work and school for tomorrow, as well as mountainous district of Taipei and New Taipei City. For updated information on closures, please visit the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration Web site. As of 5pm today, Fung-wong was about 490km south-southwest of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost point.
UNILATERAL MOVES: Officials have raised concerns that Beijing could try to exert economic control over Kinmen in a key development plan next year The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) yesterday said that China has so far failed to provide any information about a new airport expected to open next year that is less than 10km from a Taiwanese airport, raising flight safety concerns. Xiamen Xiangan International Airport is only about 3km at its closest point from the islands in Kinmen County — the scene of on-off fighting during the Cold War — and construction work can be seen and heard clearly from the Taiwan side. In a written statement sent to Reuters, the CAA said that airports close to each other need detailed advanced
Tropical Storm Fung-Wong would likely strengthen into a typhoon later today as it continues moving westward across the Pacific before heading in Taiwan’s direction next week, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 8am, Fung-Wong was about 2,190km east-southeast of Cape Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving westward at 25kph and possibly accelerating to 31kph, CWA data showed. The tropical storm is currently over waters east of the Philippines and still far from Taiwan, CWA forecaster Tseng Chao-cheng (曾昭誠) said, adding that it could likely strengthen into a typhoon later in the day. It is forecast to reach the South China Sea
Almost a quarter of volunteer soldiers who signed up from 2021 to last year have sought early discharge, the Legislative Yuan’s Budget Center said in a report. The report said that 12,884 of 52,674 people who volunteered in the period had sought an early exit from the military, returning NT$895.96 million (US$28.86 million) to the government. In 2021, there was a 105.34 percent rise in the volunteer recruitment rate, but the number has steadily declined since then, missing recruitment targets, the Chinese-language United Daily News said, citing the report. In 2021, only 521 volunteers dropped out of the military, the report said, citing
RSS