Beijing yesterday refused to comment on the appointment of a pro-Taiwan former legislator as the head of Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), but said it looked forward to collaborating with the new administration on establishing direct weekend flights starting in July.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Spokesman Li Weiyi (李維一) told a press conference yesterday that Beijing had no comment on the appointment of former Taiwan Solidarity Union legislator Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) as MAC chairwoman when asked by reporters about Beijing’s reaction to her new position.
“What we really care about is the future development of cross-strait relations,” Li said.
The spokesman also denied that Lai’s appointment was the reason why China reportedly reneged on its offer to allow Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) and Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) to visit Beijing in the near future.
“We welcome the visit of Chairman Wu,” Lee said.
Li went on to say Beijing looks forward to working with the new administration on improving cross-strait relations based on the “1992 Consensus,” calling it a “foundation to resolve practical matters” and solidify peace across the Taiwan Strait.
“We hope to resume negotiations on cross-strait isues based on the framework of the ‘1992 consensus,’” the spokesman repeated on a number of occasions.
The “1992 consensus” was a term coined by former MAC head Su Chi (蘇起) to describe the “consensus” between Taiwan and China during a meeting in Hong Kong in 1992 that both sides would adhere to the “one-China” principle with different interpretations.
The term, however, has been blasted by the Democratic Progressive Party, which insists no consensus ever existed.
President-elect Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) interpreted Beijing’s remarks as positive and pledged to carry out his cross-strait policies after his inauguration on May 20.
Ma’s spokesman Lo Chih-chiang (羅智強) said Ma’s stance on cross-strait issues was unchanged, and he would carry out his cross-strait policies as soon as possible through negotiations between the SEF and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
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
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