Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday said that nothing would be “nonnegotiable” between Taiwan and China once certain conditions are met.
Wang made the remarks at a news conference about a Taiwanese film company’s documentary on a father-son pair of Qing Dynasty artist-officials, Dong Bangda (董邦達) and Dong Gao (董誥).
Chinese culture is what connects the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, Wang said, calling for more cultural exchanges, creating more consensuses and increased collaboration.
Photo: Fang Pin-Chao Taipei Times
“When one day the political systems of the two sides are compatible, the GDP per capita comparable, the social and public values similar, and religious freedom guaranteed, the heart of the two sides of the Strait could be melded together and nothing would be nonnegotiable then,” the speaker said.
Meanwhile, asked if he would run in next year’s presidential election for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) or instead run for legislative office in Changhua County as has been rumored, Wang called the rumor “nonsense,” but refused to give a definitive answer about the presidential race.
He said a conclusion “would surely be out before May 16,” the deadline for picking up a KMT presidential primary application.
Photo: Fang Pin-Chao, Taipei Times
In related news, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucus stalled the legislature with 200 agenda-changing motions in a bid to derail a KMT plan related to draft bills for an oversight mechanism for cross-strait agreements.
The KMT reportedly aims to pass a reconsideration motion of referring the bills to the Internal Administration Committee for review.
If the reconsideration had been put to a floor vote yesterday as the KMT caucus had planned, it likely would have been passed, given the KMT’s legislative majority.
The party could then have had the committee’s convener, KMT Legislator Chang Ching-chung (張慶忠), preside over the review of the oversight bills.
Chang helped trigger the Sunflower movement in March last year by ramming the cross-strait service trade agreement through the committee and to the legislative floor in just 30 seconds.
The TSU launched its stalling campaign after cross-party negotiations broke down in the morning.
KMT deputy caucus whip Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟) said the KMT conceded by allowing KMT Legislator Chiu Wen-yen (邱文彥) to chair the review instead of Chang.
However, TSU lawmakers said there should be a review without the KMT playing a presiding role in the committee.
They then proposed 200 motions to change the legislative agenda.
Each motion requires at least a few minutes to be put to a floor vote. When the floor meeting adjourned at about 4pm, only 61 of the motions had been voted upon.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese
RSS