Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) announced yesterday he would visit China from Thursday until Monday, adding that he hoped the visit would serve as a catalyst for the DPP’s closer engagement with Beijing.
The five-day trip that will take him and his delegation to Xiamen and Beijing will make Hsieh the highest-ranking former DPP official to visit China. Hsieh has served as premier and DPP chairman
“I am willing to take the first step for bilateral exchanges [between the DPP and China] and be responsible for whatever consequences may follow,” Hsieh told a press conference at his office, with more than 50 reporters covering the event.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“Cross-strait engagement cannot be monopolized by the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT]. The DPP cannot stand still and neither should it be marginalized from the platform of bilateral dialogue,” he said.
The veteran politician has accepted an invitation from the the International Bartenders’ Association to watch a bartending competition in Beijing and was granted a visa for the trip.
Hsieh and his delegation are scheduled to visit Xiamen, Fujian Province, where he will pay tribute to his ancestors on Dongshan Island and visit Xiamen University, as well as Taiwanese businesses, on Thursday and Friday. He will then go to Beijing for the bartending event and a visit to the Beijing National Stadium, nicknamed “the Bird’s Nest.”
Hsieh said he would visit China in his private capacity as chairman of the Taiwan Reform Foundation and there would be “no public political events” in his itinerary.
“The visit will also be an attempt to forge mutual trust, which is crucial between domestic political parties, as well as countries across the strait,” he said.
The visit to Xiamen was a dream finally fulfilled, Hsieh said, because a visit he had planned to the city when he was Kaohsiung mayor 12 years ago was blocked by then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
While he would like to make the trip non-political, Hsieh said he would not hesitate to talk to officials in Beijing about the Republic of China and his China policies, which call for a “constitutional consensus” (憲法共識) and "one Constitution, two interpretations (憲法各表)".
Hsieh has been using the two concepts in recent years to replace his previous concept of “constitutional one China” (憲法一中), a vague term that was criticized by some DPP members.
Concerns about his possible political discussions with Chinese leaders were unnecessary, Hsieh said in a question-and-answer session, saying he had “put all [his] ideas in a book,” so he could not change them overnight.
The delegation will include DPP lawmakers Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) and Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟), Greater Kaohsiung Councilor Kang Yu-cheng (康裕成), Yunlin County Commissioner Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬) and TransWorld University professor Hsieh Min-chieh (謝敏捷).
Several DPP members have visited China since the DPP’s loss in the presidential election in January, including New Taipei City (新北市) office director Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政), former Straits Exchange Foundation chairman Hung Chi-chang (洪奇昌) and DPP Legislator Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴).
Hsieh said he had talked to DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) about the trip, but declined to disclose further details.
Su responded yesterday evening by lauding Hsieh’s effort to promote better understanding of China, saying that he was confident that the trip would be “surprise-free” because Hsieh has always been a wise politician who knows very well how to safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty and democratic values.
Hsieh has reassured the party that there would be no “political visits and events” during the trip, he said.
Su said he and Hsieh shared the same goal because he had already said that the DPP needed to better understand China in a variety of areas — politics, economics, culture and civil society.
However, former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) said that the visit should be carefully assessed and should be transparent, adding that any comments should be made cautiously.
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 —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS