People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) will begin his landmark journey to China on May 5, the party said yesterday, adding that the agenda for his trip is still being hammered out.
In a statement issued yesterday afternoon, the PFP said the preliminary results of party secretary-general Chin Chin-sheng's (秦金生) working trip to China have Soong leaving for Xian, China on May 5 and returning from Beijing to Taiwan on May 12. All other details are still being settled by Chin in China, the statement read.
Chin left for Beijing on Sunday with other PFP personnel to discuss the details of Soong's upcoming trip with Chinese authorities. According to the party, Chin was received by Jia Qinglin (賈慶林), the chairman of China's People's Political Consultative Conference, on Sunday night. The two spoke until 4am the next morning about the details of the trip, the party said.
Jia last month invited Soong and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) to visit Beijing in their capacity as party chairmen. While Lien is leaving on his trip to China today, the PFP waited until last week to formally accept and begin planning their trip.
During the meeting on Sunday, Jia expressed his respect for the PFP's long-term efforts to facilitate cross-strait relations and cross-strait peace, the statement said.
"This is the first time officials from the PFP and the CCP have come in contact. Both sides understand that there are numerous difficulties involved in improving cross-strait relations, but both also expect to gradually break through those difficulties," the statement read.
Given the similar natures and origin of their trips, Lien and Soong's trips have been widely compared by the media.
Lien said at a press conference yesterday morning that while he does not know the specifics of the PFP trip, the KMT welcomes any efforts to facilitate cross-strait peace and dialogue.
Chin is set to return from China tomorrow.
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS