A delegation of Chinese officials led by Shanghai Vice Mayor Hua Yuan (華源) arrived in Taipei yesterday for the annual Taipei-Shanghai Twin-City Forum, a rare Chinese visit at a time of heightened cross-strait military and political tension.
Hua arrived at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to attend today’s city-to-city forum, which was first held in 2010. He did not answer questions shouted at him by reporters.
Hua is leading a delegation of about 90 people attending the one-day event, which the Taipei mayor’s office said would see agreements signed on healthcare and red panda exchanges.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
A group from the pro-independence Taiwan Republic Office shouted “Taiwan and China, separate countries” as Hua left the airport.
“This forum is devoid of meaning, brings no benefit and has many detrimental effects for Taipei. China is using it for propaganda as part of ‘united front’ tactics against Taiwan,” Taiwan Republic Office director Chilly Chen (陳峻涵) said.
Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) has denigrated himself, as Shanghai only sent its vice mayor, only the city’s third-ranking official, after its mayor and the Chinese Communist Party secretary of Shanghai, he added.
Photo: CNA
Chen said Chiang should raise with the visiting Chinese delegation the issue of dissident writer Li Yanhe (李延賀), who was arrested and remains incarcerated by Shanghai police when he visited the city to see his relatives in March last year.
On another side of an area cordoned off by police, the pro-China New Party and China Unification Promotion Party held their own gathering, waving welcome banners with a slogan saying: “Both sides need to hold exchanges for Taiwan to be safe.”
Chiang of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has said visits such as this are needed more than ever at times of tension.
Photo: CNA
The Chinese delegation has agreed to keep a “low profile” throughout their trip, the Mainland Affairs Council said.
The council last week blocked some members of the Shanghai delegation from attending, saying it was to protest against and express disapproval of China’s “22 guidelines” to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists.”
The council yesterday said the government was showing goodwill by allowing the forum to take place even in the face of the “still serious situation across the Taiwan Strait.”
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
RSS