China yesterday warned Taiwan that its planned referendum this month on UN membership was putting peace between the two sides at risk.
"If the Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) authorities stubbornly move down the path [to a referendum], they will pay a heavy price," Chinese parliamentary spokesman Jiang Enzhu (姜恩柱) told reporters.
Jiang called it "a serious step towards seeking de jure [legal] independence."
"If the Chen Shui-bian authorities should succeed, it will gravely undermine cross-straight relations, undermine the interests of people on both sides of the Taiwan Straits [sic] and threaten the peace and stability in the ... Straits," he said.
Jiang said that the vote on joining the UN was "tantamount" to a referendum on independence.
His comments came as he announced that China's military spending this year would rise 17.6 percent to 417.8 billion yuan (US$57.2 billion).
Jiang insisted that Beijing was committed to peacefully achieving reunification.
"But at the same time, we will make well our preparations and firmly curb the dangerous activities of Taiwan independence forces," he said. "The situation across the Taiwan Straits is at a crucial stage ... we will never permit any person under any name and in any manner to split Taiwan from China."
Taiwan, under its official name the Republic of China, lost its UN seat to the People's Republic of China in 1971 and is now recognized diplomatically by 23 countries.
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
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
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