The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) annual forum with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began yesterday in Beijing and a new panel — the political panel — was created to “explore possibilities for cross-strait political talks,” KMT Vice Chairman Steve Chan (詹啟賢) said.
At the opening ceremony, Chan said the forum has taken place since 2006 and during those years “the KMT had been in opposition, became the ruling party [in 2008] and has now again become the opposition.”
“Looking back on the 10-year history of the forum, we see that the resolutions made in the past have been adopted by the governments in each side of the Taiwan Strait and turned into policies that greatly benefited the people,” he said.
Photo: CNA
Chan said that government officials of both sides had participated in the forum over the past eight years to discuss possible policies, which was “a rare page in history.”
“That page has been brought to a temporary end and it is widely known that the cause is the denying of the ‘1992 consensus’ as a political foundation” by the Democratic Progressive Party government, he said.
As the two sides of the Taiwan Strait have experienced “more than 60 years of institutional, military and diplomatic differences, it takes time and wisdom to discuss fusing this half-century gap and that is why a new panel — the political panel — has been added to this year’s forum,” he said.
He said that while many Taiwanese political pundits have expressed doubts about holding this year’s forum, “the KMT knows that there cannot be a lack of communication across the Strait, as prosperity has only been possible in the past eight years after the KMT decided in 2005 [to hold talks with Beijing] after witnessing the cross-strait stalemate caused by [then-president] Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration.”
This year’s forum includes five panels — political, economic, cultural, social and youth.
This year the “cross-strait economic, trade and cultural forum,” has been renamed the “cross-strait peaceful development forum.”
The change is believed to have been decided by KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) to advance her “peace party platform,” which was passed by the party’s national congress in September and has since spawned controversy within the KMT as it calls for a peace agreement with China.
KMT Policy Committee executive director Alex Tsai (蔡正元) said that the party is not looking to replace the Straits Exchange Foundation, as it is an agency of public authority, the Chinese-language Apple Daily reported.
The KMT, working as a non-governmental organization, is constructing a KMT-CCP communication mechanism, which would not affect cross-strait dialogue at the official level, he added.
“The KMT’s and Hung’s goal is to reduce the negative effects and damage caused by [President] Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) to a minimum,” Alex Tsai said.
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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