The US should intensify its opposition to China's proposed anti-secession law aimed at Taiwan because "quiet diplomacy" will not resolve the volatile issue, according to a senior Taiwanese official.
Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Chairman Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said in an interview late on Monday that there may be no way to stop Beijing from enacting the law, which Taiwan and US officials say will inflame cross-strait tensions.
The proposed anti-secession law is seen by analysts as a Chinese effort to justify a military invasion of democratic Taiwan, thus preventing what Beijing views as moves toward formal Taiwanese independence.
Senior US officials privately describe the proposed law as a threat to regional peace, but have said little in public.
US officials have argued that they could exert more influence on Beijing through "quiet diplomacy" and that they want to see the text of the law before speaking out, Wu said.
In Taiwan, "we are quite afraid that if they [Americans] don't make public opposition to the law by the time the [the specific text of the law is published], it may be too late already," Wu said.
"If you look at the concept of the law it's really very provocative. So we tried to relay our position and our worries to the American side," he added.
Wu was in Washington to attend US President George W. Bush's inauguration and hold talks -- mainly on the anti-secession law -- with administration officials and US China experts.
Wu described the law as Beijing's attempt to unilaterally change the status quo between the two cross-strait rivals and to taunt Taiwan into taking countermeasures, which he insisted "are not on the agenda at this moment."
But, he added: "I think the US administration, or the United States in general, including friends in Congress and think tanks, need to express in a clear way their opposition to the anti-secession law."
Chinese authorities are expected to take up the law at the National People's Congress in March and seem increasingly determined to enact it, Wu said.
Still, he said, "we are trying to see if we can reverse the Chinese decision to enact the law [by having the proposal sent first to committee for an extended period] so we have sufficient time to turn things around."
Wu departed Los Angeles Tuesday for Taiwan after concluding a week-long visit in the US.
Wu told reporters before his departure that the government has a consistent policy towards China and that the MAC will continue to work to promote cooperation across the Taiwan Strait after the new Cabinet is inaugurated Feb. 1.
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