The relationship between Taiwan and China is one of “two sides of the Taiwan Strait,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said yesterday, adding that the media took comments he made earlier out of context by reporting that he called the two sides of the Taiwan Strait “two countries.”
Liang made the response to lawmakers following criticism over the comment he made during a radio interview on Monday last week in which he said the “two sides of the Taiwan Strait” and “the Republic of China (ROC) and People’s Republic of China (PRC)” mean the same thing.
In that comment, he was clarifying an earlier statement made by President William Lai (賴清德) that the ROC and PRC are not subordinate to each other.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
During a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee at the Legislative Yuan yesterday, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Lin Yi-chuan (林憶君) asked Liang to clarify his comment that “two sides of the Strait” and “two countries” are the same, adding that it would be “ridiculous” to not treat the PRC like a country.
Liang said the radio interview was a discussion, and the media took his response out of context to make it “not quite accurate.”
When discussing the practical relationship between the two sides, Liang said he brought up the example of needing an ROC ID to qualify for National Health Insurance, so citizens of the PRC cannot apply.
The MAC was founded in accordance with the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), Liang said.
Therefore, “strictly speaking, it is necessary to talk about the relationship between the Taiwan area and the mainland area, but customary to say the ‘two sides of the Strait,’” he said.
TPP Legislator Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) asked if this meant he would rescind his “two countries” comment in favor of “two sides of the Strait.”
Liang replied that it was “of course” two sides of the Strait, adding that the “two countries” comment was made by the host of the radio program, not him.
In the interview, the host said that according to the Constitution, it is “two sides of the Strait,” but practically, it is “two countries.”
Liang in response said that is “in essence how it is.”
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do
RSS