Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday said she would not attend a luncheon with Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林) as part of the Chinese envoy’s tour of the south tomorrow.
The rejection of the invitation by host E United Group could undermine the chances of an informal meeting between Chen Yunlin and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) municipality heads, who do not oppose the visit.
The decision by Chen Chu, who said the private gathering was unrelated to her official duties, could have been the result of pressure from pro-independence groups opposed to the meeting.
Supporters of the groups, who have promised to rally hundreds on Greater Kaohsiung streets tomorrow, said on Monday that politicians willing to meet Chen Yunlin should be ready to be “washed in eggs.”
If Chen Chu meets the Chinese envoy, “we should be ready to serve [her] rotten eggs,” said Tsay Ting-kuei (蔡丁貴), head of the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan, the group involved in organizing the protests.
Former Kaohsiung County commissioner Yang Chiu-hsing (楊秋興) is expected to take part in the dinner, held at Eda World, the tourist complex where Chen Yunlin will be staying, along with dozens of executives and local politicians, including municipal council speaker Hsu Kun-yuan (許崑源).
Chen Chu said she did not rule out meeting Chen Yunlin at another venue, such as the cross-strait economic forum being organized by Greater Kaohsiung officials to coincide with Chen Yunlin’s overnight visit. It was not known whether Chen Chu or Chen Yunlin would attend the forum, for which officials said more than 20 senior executives had already signed up.
Chen Yunlin is scheduled to arrive in Taipei today before embarking on a three-day visit to Greater Kaohsiung and Chiayi City as well as Chiayi and Yunlin counties.
Greater Tainan was earlier dropped from the schedule.
The Straits Exchange Foundation has defined the trip as an economic visit focusing on building ties between cross-strait businesses. The Chinese envoy, who will reportedly be accompanied by 30 Chinese industrialists, will visit factories, economic zones and ports over the week.
Despite a welcoming statement given by the DPP municipalities, more than 100 protesters have pledged to tail Chen Yunlin during all parts of his visit to express their opposition against deepening cross-strait economic ties.
The DPP said it would not endorse the protests, which will be led by the Southern Taiwan Society, One Side One Country Alliance and the Alliance of Referendum for Taiwan.
DPP officials have nevertheless called on law enforcement agencies to show restraint and allow the protests to proceed.
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
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
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
RSS