Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) would lead a delegation to the Straits Forum in China this week, the party said yesterday.
Lin Kuan-yu (林寬裕), head of the KMT’s Culture and Communications Committee, said the visit would follow Taiwan’s regulations governing people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The Straits Forum, an annual conference between Taiwan and China, started in 2009 to promote grassroots interactions, economic and trade exchanges, and cultural integration.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Hsia attended the meeting last year via videoconference due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The KMT would participate in the forum in its capacity as a political party and a private organization to conduct exchanges between Taiwan and China in a bid to benefit people on both sides and help pursue peace, Lin said.
During the trip, Hsia would meet with Taiwanese living in China, including students and investors, and relay their opinions and concerns to Chinese agencies, Lin said.
Hsia is scheduled to depart for China on Friday and return to Taiwan on June 19 with his delegation, which includes representatives from the party’s China affairs division, think tanks and grassroots and youth divisions, the KMT said.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office on May 31 said that the forum is to open in China’s Fujian Province on Friday.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday said in a statement that while the government encourages exchanges between people in Taiwan and China in an appropriate and orderly manner, it opposes any political maneuvers and “united front” propaganda from China.
The Straits Forum is a “united front” platform that China uses to spread sentiment against Taiwanese independence and facilitate unification, the MAC said, adding that the government’s stance is not to allow Taiwan to jointly hold the forum and not to allow China to extend the forum’s activities to Taiwan.
Central government officials are barred from participating in the Straits Forum and the MAC would not be happy if local governments were to send anybody to the conference, it said.
Taiwanese are also not allowed to join any “democratic negotiations” with China or participate in “one country, two systems” activities, because it could damage Taiwan’s national security, it added.
The MAC urged Taiwanese to remain vigilant about their own safety while in China following the introduction in April of a revised counter-espionage law that means foreign visitors, including Taiwanese, could be arrested under the banner of protecting national security.
It also called for people in Taiwan to keep a close eye on China’s strategies that aim to polarize and infiltrate the nation, which would help safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty, and the values of freedom and democracy.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS