China yesterday branded President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) policies the "greatest threat to peace and stability" in the region only hours after he was inaugurated.
"Chen Shui-bian's provocative pro-independence activities form the biggest current threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Straits," the foreign ministry statement said.
The comments came after Chen was sworn in for a second term as president. In his speech, Chen promised to keep independence off the political agenda, but China appeared unimpressed with his conciliatory approach.
"We stick to the basic policy of `peaceful reunification' and `one country, two systems,' and are willing to strive for a peaceful solution of the Taiwan issue with the greatest sincerity and effort," the statement said.
"But we will absolutely not tolerate Taiwan's independence. That position is firm and unshakable," it said.
China also took a swipe at the US, after Washington said its harsh language on Taiwan had "no place in international civilized discourse."
"The US should not send the wrong signals to `Taiwanese independence forces,'" the statement said.
Analysts said Beijing did not trust Chen and would want to see concrete action to back his words.
"China no longer trusts him. It doesn't care what he says. What matters are his actions," said Wu Nengyuan (
"His goal for Taiwanese independence hasn't changed. This is what the Chinese government was worried about. I'm not optimistic about cross-strait relations. I expect there will be intense confrontation, a crisis coming. It depends on what Chen does. If he pushes Taiwanese independence past China's baseline, then it's dangerous," Wu said.
"He talks about building a mutually beneficial relationship with China. He talks about building mutual trust. It's a very smart declaration. It'll be difficult for China," he said.
"The Chinese side has to ac-knowledge the fact they have to deal with Chen in the next four years. There's no longer any politician in Taiwan they can rely on for reunification because there's no one that stands for reunification," Wu said.
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 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
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
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
RSS