Cross-strait exchanges have to be processed based on the principles of sovereignty, democracy, peace and equality, President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said yesterday.
Chen made the remarks when meeting representatives of the Atlantic Council of the United States at the Presidential Office. He also said that Taiwan had shown friendliness whenever they have tried to engage with China, but the task remained extremely challenging at present.
"Don't forget that one of the conclusions reached earlier this year during my meeting with James Soong (
Chen said yesterday that in May, before Soong set out for China, he had reminded him that the principles of sovereignty, democracy, peace and equality must be upheld. However, it was sad that Soong only mentioned the ROC briefly because of pressure he from Beijing while he was in China.
Chen said it would be a very bad situation if Beijing only communicated with Taiwan's oppos-ition parties.
"We have our own government. Our authority should not be un-dermined by anybody," Chen said.
Yesterday was the first time the president has talked about cross-strait issues since the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) punishing defeat in the Dec. 3 local elections.
Following the DPP's loss in last year's legislative elections, his meeting with Soong in February and the 10-point consensus that they agreed upon drew much ire from pro-independence supporters.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
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