The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday the country must step up its defensive capability because China would not renounce a military option with regard to tension in the Taiwan Strait.
"Beijing is the cause of tensions in the Taiwan Strait. It has no right to comment on our efforts to strengthen our national defense," the council said in a statement.
Taiwan's plan to purchase weapons from the US is needed to maintain cross-strait peace, the council added.
Beijing's leaders yesterday accused Taiwan of "war-provoking behavior" after Premier Yu Shyi-kun said the nation should strike Shanghai with missiles in the event of an attack by China.
The Taiwan Affairs Office under China's State Council also lashed out at the planned multi-billion-dollar arms purchase, suggesting it was intended to secure Taiwan's independence.
"The TAO's remarks are inappropriate and unhelpful for cross-strait relations," council officials said.
Yu angered Beijing last week when he said the weapons were needed to maintain a balance of power, and that if China hit the nation with missiles Taiwan should "at least hit Shanghai."
"This demonstrates Taiwan's ambitions of using force and its false attitude toward peace and independence," said Li Weiyi (
Li accused President Chen Shui-bian (
He also said Taiwan was "obstinately carrying out splittist activities" -- Beijing's rhetoric for pursuing formal independence.
Taiwan's US$18 billion plan to buy US made anti-missile systems, aircraft and submarines sparked a protest attended by thousands last weekend in Taipei. Demonstrators complained that the deal would start a costly arms race with China.
Beijing has asked Washington to scrap the deal.
Earlier this week, Chinese Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing (
Li said China's policy toward Taiwan "remains unchanged" under the new leadership of President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), who took over as head of the military commission earlier this month after former president and military chief Jiang Zemin (江澤民) retired from the post three years early.
"Taiwan belongs to all the Chinese people. Any attempt to change the status of Taiwan by referendum is illegal and not valid. We will not allow Taiwan to be separate," Li said. "Any attempt will be doomed to failure."
Responding to criticism leveled by China's Taiwan Affairs Office, Cabinet Spokesman Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) said that Beijing's military intimidation and diplomatic suppression will only lead to a bigger chasm across the Taiwan Strait.
"China is the one who is hostile and provocative because it has more than 600 ballistic missiles aimed at us and will not stop suppressing our diplomatic endeavors," he said at a press conference held after the weekly closed-door Cabinet meeting yesterday afternoon.
Taiwan will never be the one to take the initiative to launch a military assault or change the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, nor will we do anything to irritate the 1.3 billion Chinese people, he added.
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
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‘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
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