President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday expressed high hopes for the negotiating team heading to Beijing tomorrow, saying that he hoped the historic journey would lay the foundations for mutual trust and better long-term relations.
The team, led by Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤), is set to negotiate direct cross-strait flights and an increase in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Taiwan.
Ma, who received Chiang and 15 members of the 19-member team at the Presidential Office yesterday morning, said that the negotiations between the SEF and its Chinese counterpart, the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS), are not only about weekend charter flights and more Chinese tourists, but also about better long-term cross-strait relations.
“I hope it will pave the way for regular meetings between the two agencies and lay the groundwork for solid ties between the two sides. It is a pity interaction between the two agencies has been dormant for the past decade,” he said.
It is the first meeting between the two agencies since the late SEF chairman Koo Chen-fu (辜振甫) met his ARATS counterpart, Wang Daohan (汪道涵), more than 10 years ago.
Ma, who once served as vice chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC), lamented the time lost since he and SEF secretary-general Kao Koong-lian (高孔廉) mapped out cross-strait policy and a negotiating strategy 21 years ago.
Ma showed reporters a copy of a proposal he penned 16 years ago on the problems with and the prospects for direct transportation links, saying that he did not have the opportunity to put it into practice.
“Under an atmosphere of detente, we hope to find a way of tackling the various issues,” he said. “It may take some time to resolve them, but we don’t want to see them become a hindrance to more urgent matters.”
As long as both sides could shelve differences and seek common ground, Ma said, mutual trust would follow. He said he realized negotiations on direct transportation would take time, but both sides have agreed to negotiate on the basis of the so-called “1992 consensus.” No matter who is in power, both sides will only benefit if they work on the issues that they agree on, he said.
Meanwhile, Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) urged the negotiating team to safeguard Taiwan’s dignity and emphasize a Taiwan-centered consciousness at the negotiating table.
While he supported the resumption of talks, Huang said he hoped that future negotiations would be conducted through a single channel and said that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) should leave the matter to the SEF and the MAC.
Huang also expressed concern over the hasty resumption of talks and the timetables for weekend charter flights and Chinese tourism, saying they was unwise.
He made the remarks after visiting MAC Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) yesterday morning.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) also issued a statement opposing the SEF and ARATS signing a joint communiques, saying that such a statement would be official endorsement of the “one China” principle under the so-called “1992 consensus” and the five-point consensus reached by former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤).
Beijing would use the joint statement to force the Ma administration to accept the negotiation framework set up by the KMT and Chinese Communist Party, the DPP said.
The DPP said it firmly opposed any consensus that did not go through the debate process in Taiwan, regardless of whether it was in the form of an agreement, meeting minutes or a press release.
The DPP said that Beijing tried to use its “Anti-Secession” Law, the communiques signed by Lien and Hu and between Hu and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) to set the course for cross-strait negotiations.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and