Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) yesterday set two preconditions for cross-strait discussions on the removal of Chinese missiles targeting Taiwan, but emphasized the time is not ripe for such talks.
“Before politically related issues are placed on the table, the public must come to a consensus and both sides of the Taiwan Strait must have a sufficient amount of trust in each other. However, the current conditions are inadequate,” said Lai, who on Tuesday called on China to address concerns about its military buildup targeting Taiwan during her meeting with China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林). Lai declined to offer details of their private conversation.
When asked by reporters when would be a good time for Taipei and Beijing to sit down and talk about the issue, Lai said high-level cross-strait talks have been held in Taiwan three times since 2008 and she had brought up the subject on each occasion she had met Chen.
Lai said she had told Chen during their meetings that the council’s position on the matter was that China should take the initiative to adjust its missile deployment against Taiwan.
Regarding when the two sides should discuss non-economic or political issues, Lai said the government’s policy on cross-strait negotiations is clear: Both sides should tackle easier and urgent issues first and economic issues precede political ones.
Lai made the remarks during the question-and-answer session at a press conference she chaired where Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) presented the agreement on medical and health cooperation he signed with Chen on Tuesday.
Chen referred to Lai as “you” during their meeting on Tuesday, Lai said yesterday, but she added it was clear that she had met Chen in her capacity as the head of the council.
“I called him Chairman Chen, but the ARATS is not an official government agency,” she said. “He sometimes addressed me as ‘you’ or ‘Shin-yuan’ or both ... I personally feel very sorry that he could not call me by my official title, but he must have his own considerations.”
Although the two sides failed to close a deal on investment protection this time, Lai said the government would never sign an accord just for the sake of it. It would instead proceed under the principle of taking a Taiwan-centered approach and doing anything beneficial for the people of Taiwan.
Over the past two-and-a-half years, both sides have signed 15 agreements. That proves that the government not only plays a leading role in setting the agenda of negotiations, but also has successfully advanced Taiwan’s economic and social development and protected the public interest, she said.
“We take concrete actions to protect our sovereignty, security and industries, and various polls have showed that our efforts have received overwhelming support from the public,” she said.
At a separate setting, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said Chen’s remarks that Taiwan and China should sit down to discuss the removal of missiles amounted to a political maneuver.
“Their political motives for this are very clear,” DPP spokesperson Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said. “On the one hand they hold talks with Taiwan, and on the other, they continue to deploy more missiles aimed at us.”
Any talks should be conducted openly and transparently, Cheng said, adding that the DPP was opposed to any sort of backroom deals between cross-strait negotiators.
If that happened, it would likely be against Taiwan’s long-term interests, he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY VINCENT Y. CHAO
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
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS