China’s “reunification” with Taiwan is inevitable, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) said in his New Year’s address yesterday, striking a stronger tone than he did in his address last year, with less than two weeks to go before Taiwan elects ts new president.
“The reunification of the motherland is a historical inevitability,” Xi said, though the official English translation of his remarks published by the state-run Xinhua news agency used a more simple phrase: “China will surely be reunified.”
“Compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait should be bound by a common sense of purpose and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” he added. The official English translation wrote “all Chinese” rather than “compatriots.”
Photo by Pedro Pardo / AFP
Last year, Xi said only that people on either side of the strait are “members of one and the same family,” and that he hoped people on both sides would work together to “jointly foster [the] lasting prosperity of the Chinese nation.”
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and DPP presidential candidate Vice President William Lai (賴清德) have repeatedly offered to hold talks with China, but have been rebuffed.
The DPP says only Taiwan’s people can decide their future, as does Lai’s main opponent in the election, New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), from Taiwan’s largest opposition party, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Lai said on Saturday that the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China “are not subordinate to each other.”
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
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