The TSU would neither oppose direct links with China nor rule out contacts with Beijing, a lawmaker of the opposition party said yesterday.
TSU Legislator Eric Wu (
Wu said the TSU, which supports the "no haste, be patient" policy, has been misunderstood. It is perceived as an opposition party against the direct links, he added.
Lee, the TSU's spiritual leader, is opposed to a tumultuous rush of investment from Taiwan to China, Wu said.
"What [former] president Lee is against," Wu said, "is not the direct links per se, but the rush of capital investment across the Strait to the detriment of Taiwan's security and dignity."
During his term in office, Lee did not prohibit Taiwan entrepreneurs from investing in China, Wu said. Lee's administration only required government approval of investment projects with a subscribed capital of more than US$50 million.
Critics have mistakenly simplified the TSU's stance on the issue by branding it as a stubborn opponent to any direct links and contacts with China, Wu said.
"We are not opposed to the opening of the three links," the lawmaker said. "Nor are we opposed to direct contacts with Beijing."
The direct links are beneficial to both sides of the Strait, Wu continued. "Why not get going together [over the opening of direct links] within the framework of the WTO?" he asked.
Noting that Beijing allowed him to visit China recently, Wu said the People's Republic of China "is very pragmatic" in dealing with TSU members. Wu visited Beijing not as a TSU legislator but as president of the ROC Harvard Alumni Club.
On June 6, TSU lawmakers suggested that the government should take the bold step of opening the way for Chinese nationals to travel to Taiwan. They said that this would prevent Taiwan's tourism from being negatively affected by any possible future opening of direct links with China.
The lawmakers said that once the direct links are implemented, Taiwan's tourism would shrink substantially because people in Taiwan would prefer to travel in China rather than at home.
To avoid serious consequences for Taiwan's travel industry after any possible opening of links, TSU lawmakers called upon the government to create incentives to attract Chinese visitors to Taiwan.
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
Taiwan’s passport ranked 34th in the world, with access to 141 visa-free destinations, according to the latest update to the Henley Passport Index released today. The index put together by Henley & Partners ranks 199 passports globally based on the number of destinations holders can access without a visa out of 227, and is updated monthly. The 141 visa-free destinations for Taiwanese passport holders are a slight decrease from last year, when holders had access to 145 destinations. Botswana and Columbia are among the countries that have recently ended visa-free status for Taiwanese after “bowing to pressure from the Chinese government,” the Ministry
RSS