The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) of trying to evade legislative oversight of cross-strait affairs following news reports that KMT Chairman and New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) is scheduled to meet with Chinese President and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) in May or June.
Chu said in Hong Kong on Monday that “it is natural” for the KMT chairman to attend the annual KMT-CCP forum, or the cross-strait economic, trade and culture forum that was launched in 2006 when the DPP was the ruling party.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office responded quickly, with spokeswoman Fan Liqing (范麗青) saying on Tuesday that Chu was welcome to visit China at his convenience and to “work to promote cross-strait relations and cement the consensus on the ‘1992 consensus’ and the anti-independence stance.”
Photo: Lee Ya-wen, Taipei Times
According to the Chinese-language Apple Daily, which cited an anonymous KMT official in the report published yesterday, Chu has decided to visit China with a group to attend the 10th KMT-CCP forum and meet with Xi, which has received President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) support.
Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Andrew Hsia (夏立言) said that the council “would be glad to see” any interaction between the two parties as long as it is advantageous to the mutual understanding of the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Meanwhile, the DPP expressed concern that the KMT, as the ruling party, might force the public to accept any deals it struck with Beijing.
DPP caucus convener Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said that cross-strait negotiations have become “single-track” since the council took over and the Straits Exchange Foundation’s role was diminished. However, Chu is now trying to re-establish a “double-track negotiation system” with the KMT-CCP forum and seize the lead over Ma in cross-strait affairs.
A double-track system would allow negotiations to evade legislative scrutiny, he said.
“The DPP is for cross-strait interactions, but they have to be transparent and monitored,” he said.
“The cause of the Sunflower movement is still vivid in memory. The public will not accept any attempts to force them to swallow agreements borne out of negotiations that they had not sanctioned,” Tsai added.
DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) said a Chu-Xi meeting would allow Chu, as KMT chairman, to meet the Chinese president.
“But is the cross-strait relationship a party-to-party one? Is the KMT representative of the Taiwanese people?” Lee asked.
KMT Legislator Wu Yu-jen (吳育仁) said that the DPP could also set up its own forum with the CCP if it is “uncomfortable with the KMT-CCP forum.”
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
Foreign ministers of leading Western democracies sought to show a united front in Canada yesterday after seven weeks of rising tensions between US allies and US President Donald Trump over his upending of foreign policy on Ukraine and imposing of tariffs. The G7 ministers from the UK, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US, along with the EU, convened in the remote tourist town of La Malbaie, nestled in the Quebec hills, for two days of meetings that in the past have broadly been consensual on the issues they face. Top of the agenda for Washington’s partners would be getting a
RSS