President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday met with Palauan President Tommy Remengesau Jr in her first open meeting after assuming the presidency on Friday, departing from the customary appellation used by former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) by referring to her administration as the “Taiwanese government.”
Under Ma, public meetings with foreign dignitaries used the formal title of “Republic of China (ROC) government” when referring to Taiwan. While the word “Taiwan” was used sparingly, it was very rarely used in the context of the “Taiwanese government.”
Tsai welcomed Remengesau, who was in Taiwan for Tsai’s inauguration, and said that the two nations could cooperate on the issue of marine conservation.
Photo: CNA
When speaking on bilateral cooperation, Tsai used the term “we” and mentioned “the ROC.”
She said Taiwan can learn from important environmental achievements during Remengesau’s tenure, such as the Micronesian Center for a Sustainable Future and the Palau National Marine Sanctuary.
Meanwhile, Beijing yesterday warned Taiwan that it would cut off critical contacts if Tsai does not state her support for the “one China” framework.
The comments came a day after Tsai’s inauguration speech, in which she called for “positive dialogue” with China, but stopped short of any compromise on Beijing’s demands that she support its “one China” principle.
Beijing and Taipei have had regular, official communication since 2014, but that would stop unless Tsai acknowledges the so-called “1992 consensus,” Xinhua news agency quoted China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) as saying.
“The communication mechanism between the two departments can only continue if the 1992 consensus, which represents the common political foundation of the one China principle, is adhered to,” he was quoted as saying.
In her speech, Tsai reiterated her stance of recognizing that a meeting took place between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Chinese officials in 1992, but did not endorse it.
The “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese government that both sides of the Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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