A statement yesterday by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Director Song Tao (宋濤) urging Taiwanese to “stand on the right side of history” and get cross-strait relations back on the “right track” was Beijing’s latest attempt to influence public opinion ahead of the elections, a Taiwanese academic said.
Song called on Taiwanese to promote “peaceful reunification” with China, saying it was the desire of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
REPEATED MESSAGE
Photo: CNA
Song’s message came after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) said in his New Year Eve’s address that China’s “reunification” with Taiwan was inevitable.
“The motherland will eventually be reunified, and it will inevitably be reunified,” Song said in his New Year’s message on his office’s Web site.
Taiwanese should “promote cross-strait relations returning to the right track of peaceful development, and promote the process of peaceful reunification of the motherland,” he said.
Song reiterated China’s support for the “one country, two systems” framework and opposition to Taiwan’s formal independence as well as “interference by external forces.”
His message made no mention of Taiwan’s elections on Saturday next week, which the TAO has cast as a choice between war and peace.
‘PRESSURE’ ON TAIWAN
Taiwan Thinktank researcher Wu Se-chih (吳瑟致) said that with Taiwan’s presidential election approaching, China’s latest remark was an act that “asserts direct pressure” on people in Taiwan, with the aim of forcing their hand in the elections.
Xi’s remarks, Song’s statement and the Chinese balloon that flew through Taiwan’s airspace yesterday, are all attempts to interfere in the elections, Wu said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS