President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday encouraged China-based Taiwanese businesspeople to return to and invest in their home nation, while calling for a new mindset and way of doing things in cross-strait interactions.
Tsai made the remarks in a speech at a Lunar New Year gathering in Taipei with China-based Taiwanese businesspeople organized by the Straits Exchange Foundation.
“I learned from the Straits Exchange Foundation that some of our Taiwanese businesspeople belonging to the Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises on the Mainland are planning to return home and invest in the Sanyi Wood Sculpture Park in Miaoli County’s Sanyi Township (三義),” Tsai said.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
They intend to build sculpture schools and tourism factories, as well as expand the Sanyi Wood Sculpture Museum, in an effort to promote the town’s tourism industry and facilitate its industrial upgrade, Tsai said.
Praising the idea, Tsai said that the government would be more than willing to provide its full support and assistance to businesspeople returning home.
Turning to the state of cross-strait relations, Tsai said the development of economic ties over the past three decades has had a profound influence on the lives of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
“However, amid a new international environment and the growing economic ties between the two sides, which have seen mutual interests and room for cooperation in economic and regional development, we need to jointly create a new cross-strait interaction model, with a new mindset and a new way of doing things,” she said.
“Only by doing so can we respond to the shared expectation of people on both sides of the Strait and in the [Asia-Pacific] region for peace,” she added.
Her administration is willing to demonstrate its greatest goodwill, and engage in a genuine dialogue and negotiation with Beijing, to create a benign and mutually beneficial economic partnership, Tsai said.
“We also call on Beijing to deal with the various problems and difficulties faced by Taiwanese businesspeople and safeguard their legal rights, free of any political intervention,” she said.
The speech was Tsai’s latest effort to extend an olive branch to China, despite her administration’s reluctance to accept the so-called “1992 consensus.”
The “1992 consensus” — a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) said in 2006 that he had made up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese government that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
After the gathering, the honorary chairman of the association, Kuo Shan-hui (郭山輝), quoted Tsai as saying that the government plans to table a new cross-strait policy to resolve the stalemate, probably later this year.
“However, given that no breakthrough would be seen regarding [Beijing’s] precondition on the ‘one China’ principle and the ‘1992 consensus,’ the current obstacles and deadlock across the Taiwan Strait could continue,” Kuo said.
Asked about the reduced attendance at yesterday’s gathering compared with previous years, Kuo said it was due to businesspeople’s concerns about the government’s efforts to promote cross-strait ties, not the result of political pressure from Beijing.
Additional reporting by CNA
BAIL APPEALS: The former vice premier was ordered to be held incommunicado despite twice being granted bail and paying a total of NT$12 million in bond The Taoyuan District Court yesterday ordered the detention of former vice premier Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), who is being investigated for alleged corruption while serving as Taoyuan mayor from December 2014 to December 2022, and that he be held incommunicado. The court made the ruling during a bail hearing after prosecutors appealed its bail ruling twice. Cheng on Saturday was released after posting bail of NT$5 million (US$153,818). However, after prosecutors lodged an appeal, the High Court on Monday revoked the original ruling and ordered the Taoyuan District Court to hold another bail hearing. On Tuesday, the district court granted bail to Cheng a second
The Thai government on Friday announced that Taiwanese would be allowed to stay in the country for up to 60 days per entry, under the Southeast Asian country’s visa-free program starting from today. Taiwan is among 93 countries included in the Thai visa-waiver program, which has been expanded from 57 countries, with the visa-exempt entry extended from 30 to 60 days. After taking office last year, Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin has vowed to grant more visa waivers to foreign travelers as part of efforts to stimulate tourism. The expanded visa-waiver program was on Friday signed by Thai Minister of the Interior Anutin
PEACE AND SECURITY: China’s military ambitions present ‘the greatest strategic challenge to Japan and the world, Japan’s annual defense white paper said yesterday Japan yesterday warned that China risked escalating tensions with Taiwan with an increase in military exercises that appeared aimed in part at readying Beijing’s forces for a possible invasion. Japan’s annual assessment of security threats, including those posed by China, North Korea and Russia, comes as Taiwan closely monitors Chinese People’s Liberation Army air and sea exercises, including one with the Shandong aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean. The drills are the latest in a series including maneuvers in the Taiwan Strait last year that a senior US general said would be key to any invasion. “Because of that increase in military activity,
HAN KUANG: The exercises, which are to run from July 22 to 26, will feature unscripted war games and a decentralized command and control structure, military officers said The armed forces would for the first time test new rules of engagement (ROE) at this month’s annual Han Kuang exercises, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said yesterday. The exercises, which are to run from July 22 to 26, will feature unscripted war games, and a decentralized command and control structure, military officers told a news conference in Taipei. ROE cards would be issued to select combat troops to test their ability to function without tight control, they said. The most recent edition of the rules was published last year, they said. One of the cards’ two templates identifies enemy targets that soldiers