China remains the biggest impediment to Taiwan’s bid to join international organizations and this issue should be discussed in upcoming cross-strait talks, legislators across party lines said yesterday.
Both Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers criticized Beijing for continuing to obstruct Taiwan’s efforts to gain more international space despite the recent cross-strait diplomatic detente.
Speaking at the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee, Minister of Foreign Affairs Timothy Yang (楊進添) said China was still the biggest impediment to Taiwan’s participation in international organizations, such as its bid to become an observer at the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).
PHOTO: LIAO YAO-TUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
“The International Technology Research Institute [ITRI] has been representing Taiwan at the UNFCCC as a non-governmental organization since 1995. But despite our repeated protests throughout the years, the convention insists on putting our NGO under China,” he said.
If Beijing were truly sincere in extending its goodwill, it should reciprocate the “diplomatic truce” by loosening its grip on Taiwan’s bid to join international bodies such as the UNFCCC, KMT Legislator Liu Sheng-liang (劉盛良) said.
“It is utterly useless for Taiwan to write protest letters or stage demonstrations on the sidelines of the meetings because the member-states still won’t support our cause unless China agrees to step aside,” he said, suggesting that China and Taiwan should launch immediate talks on the issue.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) said Taiwan’s participation in the convention as an observer would be a “true indication” that China was serious about reducing cross-strait tension and that the so-called “truce” declared unilaterally by President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was effective.
Tsai agreed that the issue should be an item on the agenda of next week’s talks in Taichung.
Yang promised that he would talk with the Mainland Affairs Council to determine when it would be appropriate to bring up the issue with Beijing.
KMT Legislator Shuai Hua-min (帥化民), meanwhile, slammed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency for “chasing trends” instead of developing workable solutions to the country’s deteriorating ecosystem.
“Taiwan is running out of water and the government is still concerned about joining an international organization just to prove we are part of the global community. Why not use the resources and the money to solve our domestic issues instead of trying to enter a group that we have very little chance of getting into?” he said.
If China is so interested in claiming Taiwan as it own, he said, then why not just blame China for Taiwan’s carbon emissions?
Tsai also criticized the foreign ministry for putting multiple pictures of the president in a brochure on Taiwan’s need to join the UNFCCC.
The two-sided glossy brochure has eight pictures of the aftermath of Typhoon Morakot that killed more than 700 people in August and four of them show Ma hugging sobbing women, speaking to the victims or surveying flooded villages.
An online version of the brochure is also available on the foreign ministry’s Web site.
“What does Ma have to do with Taiwan’s hope to join the UNFCCC? The brochure looks more like Ma’s campaign material than a document to promote Taiwan,” Tsai said.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
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