Former Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) is scheduled to meet with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) today in Xiamen as part of his ancestor-worshiping tour in China’s Fujian Province.
Wang departed for China yesterday.
Wang and former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) are attempting to find ways to interact with China to defuse rising tensions and avoid a war between the two countries, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus deputy chief secretary Wang Hong-wei (王鴻薇) said yesterday.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
If the Taipei-Shanghai City Forum can be successfully held by the end of this year, it would help to build the solid foundation for peace that people across the Taiwan Strait have been hoping for, she said.
Wang Jin-pyng established a think tank on Wednesday called the “Middle Way Peace Alliance” (中道和平聯盟智庫), while Ma’s foundation invited a group of Chinese students to visit Taiwan, who are expected to arrive on Wednesday next week, she said.
During a lunch hosted by his think tank on Wednesday, Wang Jin-pyng said he would spend his twilight years building a more harmonious political atmosphere domestically and contributing to cross-strait peace, adding that the think tank would recruit members across party lines to help him achieve those goals.
“Everybody hopes for cross-strait peace. Taiwan has bought NT$20 billion [US$650 million] of military equipment from the US, which has yet to delivered, and US president-elect Donald Trump is filling his would-be Cabinet positions with anti-China hawks. The cross-strait tension would only rise,” KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said.
Wang Jin-pyng’s appeal to unite Taiwan, contribute to cross-strait peace and facilitate reconciliation between the ruling and opposition parties is a good start, Lai said.
“We are facing a precarious international situation, and each of us should ask ourselves how we can contribute,” KMT Legislator Hsieh Long-jie (謝龍介) said, adding that the government’s national security team should spend more time thinking about ways to create peace and dialogue.
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
RSS