DPP legislators yesterday criticized Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) after he said he felt it was unlikely that Beijing would launch a missile attack against Taiwan.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said Wu’s remarks could only further numb the public, making people less vigilant, and that the comments posed a danger to national security.
Ker said China’s attitude toward Taiwan has always been hypocritical, yet it remains malignant.
He added that it was ridiculous for Wu to evaluate the nation’s security using just his “feelings.”
DPP caucus whip William Lai (賴清德) said China wanted to take over Taiwan and that Wu had become a tool of Beijing’s ambitions.
Lai said the direction of China’s missiles would not follow Wu’s “feelings.”
KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) stood firm behind Wu Poh-hsiung’s remarks, calling on China to decrease the number of the missiles as a gesture of goodwill.
Wu Den-yih said Beijing had told the party on many occasions that the missiles were aimed at “the Pacific Ocean,” but he said Beijing should consider Taiwanese “feelings,” since both sides wanted to create a win-win situation and put controversies aside.
Wu Den-yih said it was “very difficult” to ask China to remove the missiles immediately, given Beijing’s own national defense needs, but he believed Beijing knows it must reduce Taiwanese negative feelings toward China resulting from the deployment of the missiles.
He said he believed the Chinese leadership would deliberate on the issue with “goodwill” and “sincerity.”
KMT caucus deputy secretary-general Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) said the party hoped that the upcoming talks between the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) would help to institutionalize communications across the Strait.
He said that military tension could be further reduced through the establishment of a confidence-building mechanism in military affairs.
In related news, Wu Den-yih said gaining entry to the WHO using the name “Chinese Taipei” was a way to put aside controversy and serve the interests of the Taiwanese people.
He said the nation’s participation in APEC and on the International Olympic Committee using the name “Chinese Taipei” was acceptable to all sides and does not provoke any controversy in terms of sovereignty.
“Can our young athletes compete and honor the nation in the Olympic Games if we do not use the title ‘Chinese Taipei’? If we do not use this title, we will even encounter difficulty attending the meetings of APEC or the WTO,” he said.
The nation should never make concessions in terms of sovereignty, but controversy should be put aside, he said.
“This is the best way to safeguard the interests of our people,” he said.
Wu was commenting on a Chinese-language China Times report yesterday, which cited an anonymous KMT source as saying that Beijing had agreed to discuss Taiwan’s participation in the WHO during the upcoming talks between SEF and ARATS.
The story said that the KMT government was considering proposing Taiwan’s participation using the name “Chinese Taipei,” although the proposal was not finalized.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
RSS