Beijing bristled yesterday at Taiwan President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) plan to send a delegation of negotiators from his party to China, saying they would only be welcome if the party abandoned its pro-independence platform.
An official of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, China's Cabinet, said Taiwan needed to take "practical and sincere" actions to back up overtures Chen made in a speech on Thursday, the official China Daily reported.
"Delegations of the [DPP] are welcome to visit the mainland, provided that the DPP accept the `one-China' principle and give up its Taiwan independence platform," the newspaper quoted the unnamed official as saying.
Chen's overture was merely an "act" put on for the international community, the Taiwan Affairs Office said in a commentary published by China's official Xinhua news agency.
The commentary said Chen wanted "to cover up his awkward position" after Chinese leader-in-waiting Hu Jintao's (胡錦濤) visit to Washington this month, hailed by Hu as a resounding success.
The Xinhua commentary said that Chen "blows hot and cold, behaves capriciously and is a hard man to trust."
But in January, Chinese Vice Premier Qian Qichen (錢其琛) signalled a softer line towards Taipei, saying only a small number of DPP members were separatists and inviting others to visit China in an "appropriate" capacity.
Chen said he would send a delegation of officials from the DPP to China after Aug. 1 to get deadlocked negotiations between Taiwan and the mainland going again.
"The first step to resume talks is to exchange visits," Chen said.
Chen also said opening direct trade, transport and postal links between Taiwan and China was "a road we must take."
In response, the Chinese official said Sino-Taiwan relations would not improve if Chen went back on his word, the China Daily reported.
Chen's overture came two days after he took a swipe at China's heir apparent Hu, saying it is "very difficult to have excessive expectations" of a breakthrough in bilateral relations if the 59-year-old vice president takes over as China's leader.
Hu is expected to replace President Jiang Zemin (
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
RSS