New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, on Monday outlined his so-called “3Ds strategy” to promote peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait during a meeting with US academics at the Brookings Institution in Washington.
The 3Ds refer to “deterrence, dialogue and de-escalation.
The hour-long closed-door meeting was not open to the press, but Hou published an English-language article titled “Taiwan’s Path Between Extremes: the Kuomintang Presidential Candidate Lays Out a Plan to Avert War With China,” the same day in the Foreign Affairs magazine.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan has to be prepared for war, but use its strength to safeguard peace and stability across the Strait, Hou said in the article.
However, at the same time, he advocates the re-establishment of dialogue with China per the Constitution of the Republic of China, as well as the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), which provides a legal framework for cross-strait relations.
“Drawing from successful experiences with such dialogue during past KMT governments, such as the collaborative efforts to combat crime since the 1990s that culminated in a comprehensive agreement on judicial mutual assistance signed in 2009, I will continue cross-strait communication while avoiding military miscalculations,” he wrote.
Hou said that such cross-strait dialogue must be based on the principles of equality, goodwill and dignity.
“Through mid and long-term interactions between both sides, I believe it is possible to gradually decrease hostility and reduce the risk of conflict across the Taiwan Strait and avoid the threat of war,” he wrote.
After the closed-door meeting, Richard Bush, non-resident senior fellow in the Center for East Asia Policy Studies at Brookings and a former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) director, said that both sides had a “very detailed and substantive discussion.”
“My cohosts and I believe that people on the American side got a very good understanding of Mayor Hou’s views on cross-strait relations and US-Taiwan relations, and we’re grateful for that,” he said.
“I think that Mayor Hou heard very clearly what the interests and concerns of people on the American side were,” Bush said, without elaborating.
Following the think tank speech, Hou visited the AIT Washington headquarters and was greeted by AIT Chairwoman Laura Rosenberger. The closed-door meeting lasted an hour and Hou did not make a public statement afterward.
Sources said that Hou also met with several Republican lawmakers, including Mike Garcia, Pete Sessions and Keith Self.
Hou is on an eight-day visit to the US that began in New York.
Yesterday was Hou’s last day in Washington before he heads to San Francisco and returns to Taipei.
It has been a longstanding practice for Taiwanese presidential candidates to visit the US before elections.
Taiwan People’s Party Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential nominee, also visited the US earlier this year.
SCANDAL: There are still discussions over whether a ban from being coaches, referees or agents should be imposed on the players, the association said The Chinese Taipei Basketball Association (CTBA), Taiwan’s basketball governing body, on Tuesday said that it has handed lifetime bans to 10 players accused of game-fixing and breaches of betting rules. In a statement on Tuesday, the CTBA said it has revoked the registration of nine former players from the semi-professional Super Basketball League’s (SBL) Yulon Lexgen Dinos and one from the Taiwan Beer Leopards of the professional T1 League. The nine former Dinos players are Ko Min-hao (柯旻豪), Chiu Chung-po (邱忠博), Chen Pin-chuan (陳品銓), Huang Hsuan-min (黃鉉閔), Wu Yu-jen (吳祐任), Chou Wei-chen (周暐宸), Yen Wen-tso (顏聞佐), Lee Chi-en (李其恩), and Senegalese center
It took director Chong Keat Aun (張吉安) nearly a decade to complete Snow in Midsummer (五月雪), a deft chronicle of Malaysia’s May 13 incident told through one woman’s search for her brother and father. Although only his second feature, it led the field at yesterday’s Golden Horse Awards with nine nominations. Chong said it had been a struggle to get people to share their memories of the intercommunal violence following the 1969 national election, known among the country’s ethnic Chinese community as “513.” “My father, for example, would shut the conversation down if my mother or grandma even mentioned the topic,” Chong said
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said that a surge in respiratory illnesses in China has been caused by at least seven types of pathogens, and small children, elderly people and immunocompromised people should temporarily avoid unnecessary visits to China. The recent outbreak of respiratory illnesses in China is mainly in the north and among children, CDC Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said on Monday. Data released by the Chinese National Health Commission on Sunday showed that among children aged one to four, the main pathogens were influenza viruses and rhinoviruses, while among children aged five to 14, the main pathogens
A new poll of Taiwanese voters found the top opposition candidate for president jumping past the ruling party’s hopeful into the lead position ahead of January’s election — the latest twist in a drama-filled race. Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) had an approval rating of 31.9 percent versus 29.2 percent for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the poll released yesterday by the Taiwanese Public Opinion Foundation showed. The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), ranked third with 23.6 percent, according to the survey conducted