The recent string of goodwill gestures extended by President Chen Shui-bian (
"When I see Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), I'll tell him that President Chen has expressed goodwill gestures in various occasions and that his resolve to pursue peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait is strong," Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), the president of Academia Sinica, told a press conference held upon his arrival. "I don't have any new messages for President Hu, except for those mentioned in President Chen's inauguration speech, the National Day address and the Nov. 11 speech."
During Chen's inauguration speech, he pledged to honor the "five noes" promised in his 2000 inauguration speech. He also urged both sides to establish a dynamic "peace and stability framework" for interactions.
Chen called on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to use a 1992 meeting in Hong Kong as the basis to return to the negotiating table during the National Day address.
On the one-month anniversary of his National Day address, Chen reiterated proposals made during his National Day speech and proposed that both sides seriously consider the issue of arms control and establish confidence-building measures through consultations and dialogues.
Chen also urged both sides to review military policies and seek to establish a code of conduct across the Taiwan Strait as a tangible guarantee of permanent peace in the Taiwan Strait.
Lee said that he also plans to mention Chen's recent invitation to Wang Daohan (
Commenting on the recent Cabinet reshuffle in the Bush administration, Lee said that he remained upbeat about Taiwan-US relations and suspected that it would remain unchanged during Bush's second presidential term.
"The US is a maturely developed democratic country, so I don't think its foreign policy will change dramatically simply because of the replacement of a few people," he said. "I believe President Bush will exert himself in maintaining Taiwan-US relations and safeguarding peace and stability in the Asia-Pacific region for the following four years."
Casting the removal of a Taiwanese promotion video because of China's protests as a "petty matter," Lee said that he knew little about the fracas because he had been in Japan attending a technology forum.
William Yih (易榮宗), spokesman for the Taiwanese delegation, was assigned by Lee to answer the question.
"We feel sorry about what happened because no APEC member economy has the right to conduct anything similar to news censorship on any other member economy," he said. "We hope the matter ends here and both sides focus on more constructive issues."
Lee also expressed optimism over the bilateral talks with other economic leaders during the forthcoming leaders' summit.
"Economic leaders come to the meeting every year to discuss regional problems and possible solutions. This year is no exception," he said. "While we have not yet finalized the bilateral meetings with other economy leaders, I believe there are plenty of opportunities to do so."
Although China's economic development could be seen as an opportunity for Taiwan, Lee said that he is also worried that Taiwan might lose its competitive edge during the course of time.
In the era of globalization, Lee said that all APEC economies should make efforts to compete and cooperate towards the common goal of bettering regional welfare as well as that of the entire human race.
"There's no world peace if mankind cannot solve the plight of the African continent," he said. "There's no hope if the world doesn't work together as a family to work out problems and respect each other's unique customs and cultures."
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS