The Presidential Office yesterday said it had not yet received a telephone call from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who on Saturday said that she hoped to talk with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) following last week’s controversial visit by Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林).
Presidential Office Spokesman Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) said that Tsai had the telephone number of Presidential Office Secretary-General Chan Chun-po (詹春柏), but as of yesterday Chan had not received a call from Tsai.
“She also has the telephone number of National Security Bureau Director Tsai Chao-ming [蔡朝明] and called him.” Wang said. “So it is a question of whether she wants to call or not.”
Wang said that while Tsai had criticized the Presidential Office for lacking sincerity by inviting her for talks via the media, Tsai had done the same thing this time around.
Wang said they would like to find out Tsai’s intentions and would be happy to make arrangements if she really wanted to talk.
In response to the Presidential Office’s comment, DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said: “Tsai brought up a serious discussion topic — unifying the people as well as the maintenance of Taiwan’s sovereignty. Instead of having his staff bounce back the issue so frivolously, President Ma should conscientiously ponder these issues, consider a framework in which the ruling and the opposition parties can interact, and decide how he wishes to respond.”
Cheng added that it was Ma who first brought up cross-party talks several months ago, a proposal that Tsai had supported.
“President Ma has said he had gotten in contact with Chairperson Tsai three times, which he hasn’t. I’m not sure why he said that, but it is not true,” Cheng said, adding that although Chan contacted the DPP a few months ago, the discussion went nowhere and was dropped.
As the national leader had proposed such a meeting, Tsai, who leads the opposition party, was demonstrating goodwill in response, Cheng said, adding that the exchange should not get stuck on who should call whom first.
While the DPP would not ask the Presidential Office for a formal invitation, it would ask that the president demonstrate his sincerity when he said that he wanted interaction by carefully considering Tsai’s comments — that gaps exist between Ma’s performance and people’s expectations, as well as between the two parties — before taking the next step, he said.
Commenting on the need for talks, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) voiced support for dialogue. Wu said such a dialogue would help ease the tension between the government and the opposition as long as Tsai did not limit the topic of dialogue to the sovereignty issue.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
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
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
RSS