The Ministry of Foreign Affairs plans to establish a foundation focusing on relations with the 10 ASEAN member countries in the near future, Minister of Foreign Affairs James Huang (
"Now is a very crucial time for Taiwan to forge closer relations with the ASEAN countries, because many Taiwanese businesses are pulling out of China and relocating to Southeast Asia after Beijing passed stricter laws on taxation and labor welfare," he said in his report to the Diplomacy and National Defense Committee in the Legislative Yuan yesterday morning.
Huang said although Taiwan was not a member of the regional community linking Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam in the economic, security and political sectors, Taipei has maintained "low-key" contacts with the member states.
During yesterday's meeting, opposition lawmakers said President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) should be held responsible for a deterioration in the nation's diplomatic strength.
They lauded the diligence of ministry staff, but said that most of their efforts to boost the nation's international image in the last eight years had been in vain because of a "hyperactive" and "stubborn" president.
"When it comes to foreign policy, the buck stops at the final decisionmaker. But his [Chen's] radical behavior has made it very difficult for our diplomats to promote Taiwan's interests abroad," Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said.
Lin was one of six KMT lawmakers present at the meeting. None of the three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) committee members attended yesterday's meeting.
Huang responded to the charges by saying that Beijing's relentless oppression of Taiwan was the biggest cause of the nation's difficult diplomatic situation.
"China will not stop crushing Taiwan's international space until it has completely emptied out the nation's pool of allies and erased all chance of Taiwan's participation in international organizations," the minister said.
KMT Legislator Cheng Li-wen (
In any democratic country, Cheng said, the foreign affairs ministry has to be open to bipartisanship and resist being dictated to by the ruling administration alone.
KMT Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴) joined in the criticism, saying that the DPP's proposed referendum on applying for UN membership using the name "Taiwan" had no benefits in terms of shoring up ties with allies and non-allies.
"Instead, the referendum has already incited many objections from Taiwan's crucial friends and major international power players," Chiang said.
Huang responded by saying that referendums are a necessary component of a democratic nation, and the government had to allow voters to voice their opinion on important issues, such as participation in the UN.
The minister said that the ministry did not rule out other approaches to joining international organizations.
Despite the recent friction in relations with the US, ties between Washington and Taipei remain solid, Huang said.
An undersea cable to Penghu County has been severed, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said today, with a Chinese-funded ship suspected of being responsible. It comes just a month after a Chinese ship was suspected of severing an undersea cable north of Keelung Harbor. The National Communications and Cyber Security Center received a report at 3:03am today from Chunghwa Telecom that the No. 3 cable from Taiwan to Penghu was severed 14.7km off the coast of Tainan, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said. The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) upon receiving a report from Chunghwa Telecom began to monitor the Togolese-flagged Hong Tai (宏泰)
Actor Lee Wei (李威) was released on bail on Monday after being named as a suspect in the death of a woman whose body was found in the meeting place of a Buddhist group in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) last year, prosecutors said. Lee, 44, was released on NT$300,000 (US$9,148) bail, while his wife, surnamed Chien (簡), was released on NT$150,000 bail after both were summoned to give statements regarding the woman’s death. The home of Lee, who has retreated from the entertainment business in the past few years, was also searched by prosecutors and police earlier on Monday. Lee was questioned three
RISING TOURISM: A survey showed that tourist visits increased by 35 percent last year, while newly created attractions contributed almost half of the growth Changhua County’s Lukang Old Street (鹿港老街) and its surrounding historical area clinched first place among Taiwan’s most successful tourist attractions last year, while no location in eastern Taiwan achieved a spot in the top 20 list, the Tourism Administration said. The listing was created by the Tourism Administration’s Forward-looking Tourism Policy Research office. Last year, the Lukang Old Street and its surrounding area had 17.3 million visitors, more than the 16 million visitors for the Wenhua Road Night Market (文化路夜市) in Chiayi City and 14.5 million visitors at Tainan’s Anping (安平) historical area, it said. The Taipei 101 skyscraper and its environs —
WAR SIMULATION: The developers of the board game ‘2045’ consulted experts and analysts, and made maps based on real-life Chinese People’s Liberation Army exercises To stop invading Chinese forces seizing Taiwan, board gamer Ruth Zhong chooses the nuclear option: Dropping an atomic bomb on Taipei to secure the nation’s freedom and her victory. The Taiwanese board game 2045 is a zero-sum contest of military strategy and individual self-interest that puts players on the front lines of a simulated Chinese attack. Their battlefield game tactics would determine the theoretical future of Taiwan, which in the real world faces the constant threat of a Chinese invasion. “The most interesting part of this game is that you have to make continuous decisions based on the evolving situation,
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