The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) have agreed to allow KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) to visit China, a Hong Kong daily said yesterday.
"Chinese authorities have agreed in principle to the idea of Lien Chan ... visiting China in June this year," a Hong Kong's Ming Pao daily quoted "reliable sources" as saying.
The report comes amid the media hype surrounding the visit of a 30-member KMT delegation headed by party Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kun (江丙坤) on a self-proclaimed "ice-breaking journey" to China.
Chiang yesterday held a meeting in Beijing with Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), director of the Taiwan Affairs Office of China's State Council, that marked the first of such meetings between the two former rival parties 56 years after 1949, when the KMT was militarily defeated by the Chinese Communist Party in the civil war. The meeting was reportedly focusing on economic cooperation and cross-strait exchanges.
"We have openly reiterated many times that we are willing to talk with any Taiwan representatives, groups or parties, who accept the 92 `consensus' and oppose Taiwan's independence," Chen said during the meeting.
Chen Yunlin said the meeting covered issues including importing agricultural products from Taiwan, resuming exportation of fishermen to Taiwan, cross-strait insurance and monetary exchanges, regular cross-strait flights on the weekend and holidays and direct cargo flights.
The trip has been touted by the KMT as the first contact between party leaders since the KMT fled to Taiwan in 1949. According to the Ming Pao, KMT Legislator Chu Feng-chih (朱鳳芝), a member of the KMT delegation, revealed that if the current trip was successful and if Beijing extended goodwill, Lien's proposed trip to China might be possible in June.
The Ming Pao reported that there was a tacit agreement reached last year that Lien would visit China prior to assuming the presidency if he won the election, and that Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) would meet him in person. The plan was dropped after Lien lost the election.
Meanwhile, Chiang visited the tomb of party founder Sun Yat-sen yesterday, laying a wreath at Sun's mausoleum outside Nanjing, the Nationalists' former capital. Both the CCP and the KMT revere Sun as leader of the 1911 revolution that ended imperial rule and created a Chinese republic.
"My heart was filled with limitless excitement and deep emotion," Chiang said. "It was very moving to visit."
Chiang's visit comes amid a surge in tensions over China's "Anti-Secession" Law. Chiang also visited the former Nationalist presidential office, where he signed a guestbook with the phrase "ice-breaking journey."
Both the KMT and the communists see his five-day trip as sealing a reconciliation. They have found common cause in uniting Taiwan with China and their dislike for President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Meanwhile, Chinese academics yesterday said in Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po that the time was not yet "ripe" for chairman of the National People's Congress' Standing Committee Wu Bangguo (吳邦國) to visit Taiwan, but said that Taiwan was taking the initiative in cross-strait relations by paying visits to China.
KMT Legislative Speaker Wang Jing-pyng had proposed sending a delegation to China to invite his Chinese counterpart to Taiwan on Tuesday.
INSURRECTION: The NSB said it found evidence the CCP was seeking snipers in Taiwan to target members of the military and foreign organizations in the event of an invasion The number of Chinese spies prosecuted in Taiwan has grown threefold over a four-year period, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said in a report released yesterday. In 2021 and 2022, 16 and 10 spies were prosecuted respectively, but that number grew to 64 last year, it said, adding that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was working with gangs in Taiwan to develop a network of armed spies. Spies in Taiwan have on behalf of the CCP used a variety of channels and methods to infiltrate all sectors of the country, and recruited Taiwanese to cooperate in developing organizations and obtaining sensitive information
Seven hundred and sixty-four foreigners were arrested last year for acting as money mules for criminals, with many entering Taiwan on a tourist visa for all-expenses-paid trips, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Saturday. Although from Jan. 1 to Dec. 26 last year, 26,478 people were arrested for working as money mules, the bureau said it was particularly concerned about those entering the country as tourists or migrant workers who help criminals and scammers pick up or transfer illegally obtained money. In a report, officials divided the money mules into two groups, the first of which are foreigners, mainly from Malaysia
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
RSS