Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強) was a big hit with the audience yesterday during his speech at Xiamen University, but some observers said his visit to China was dotted with hints at “unification.”
Hu, on board the landmark July 4 direct cross-strait charter from Chingchuankang Airport in Taichung, arrived in Xiamen on Friday with Taichung County Commissioner Huang Chung-sheng (黃仲生), Changhua County Commissioner Cho Po-yuan (卓伯源) and Nantou County Deputy Commissioner Chen Tze-ching (陳志清) for a four-day visit. They were Taiwan’s first local government chiefs to travel to China directly from Taichung.
While speaking at Xiamen University’s auditorium yesterday, a member of the audience, who claimed to have visited Taichung, challenged Hu by saying that “Xiamen is better than Taichung.”
Hu replied in his own style of humor, beginning by saying: “When two people want to be friends, they must first see the good qualities in each other.”
He went on to say that in the past, he had suggested to Chinese policymakers that if there was to be any goodwill across the Taiwan Strait, Beijing must dismantle the missiles pointed at Taiwan. Hu told the audience that the person he was talking to at the time replied by arguing that the “missiles are for the Taiwanese independence supporters.”
“I was not aware that missiles have eyes capable of distinguishing who is and is not a Taiwanese independence supporter,” Hu told the audience, drawing loud laughter from the crowd and assuaging the tension in the room.
As the delegation led by Hu, Cho, Huang and Chen continued their visit in Xiamen yesterday, participants noted that while they could feel friendliness and respect from the people they met, they also sensed “united front” (統戰) tactics in the air. “United front” refers to tactics and efforts employed by Beijing aimed at extending its influence in Taiwan to aid unification.
One pan-green supporter said that no matter where the delegation went, the Chinese entourage always made “unification” comments to Hu such as “welcome back to the Motherland,” or “the blood that all Chinese people share is thicker than water.”
The pan-green supporter claimed he was able to insert some counter-united front remarks on various occasions by dropping comments like “the best situation is one side one country” or by elaborating on the values of Taiwan’s democracy.
The four local government chiefs’ China visit was made possible after the Executive Yuan approved on Thursday the relaxation of the Regulations Governing Public Servants and Special Status Personnel from the Taiwan Area Entering the Mainland Area (臺灣地區公務員及特定身分人員進入大陸地區�?鴘k), effective that day.
Under the relaxed regulations, local city mayors and county magistrates are now permitted to engage in bilateral exchanges at municipal or county levels, and the application procedure to gain Mainland Affairs Council approval will be shortened from three weeks to one week. Prior to the revisions approved by the Cabinet in its weekly meeting, local chiefs were only allowed to attend international events in China.
Additional reporting by CNA
Foreign tourists who purchase a seven-day Taiwan Pass are to get a second one free of charge as part of a government bid to boost tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. A pair of Taiwan Passes is priced at NT$5,000 (US$156.44), an agency staff member said, adding that the passes can be used separately. The pass can be used in many of Taiwan’s major cities and to travel to several tourist resorts. It expires seven days after it is first used. The pass is a three-in-one package covering the high-speed rail system, mass rapid transport (MRT) services and the Taiwan Tourist Shuttle services,
Drinking a lot of water or milk would not help a person who has ingested terbufos, a toxic chemical that has been identified as the likely cause of three deaths, a health expert said yesterday. An 83-year-old woman surnamed Tseng (曾) and two others died this week after eating millet dumplings with snails that Tseng had made. Tseng died on Tuesday and others ate the leftovers when they went to her home to mourn her death that evening. Twelve people became ill after eating the dumplings following Tseng’s death. Their symptoms included vomiting and convulsions. Six were hospitalized, with two of them
DIVA-READY: The city’s deadline for the repairs is one day before pop star Jody Chiang is to perform at the Taipei Dome for the city’s Double Ten National Day celebrations The Taipei City Government has asked Farglory Group (遠雄集團) to repair serious water leaks in the Taipei Dome before Friday next week, Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) said yesterday, following complaints that many areas at the stadium were leaking during two baseball games over the weekend. The dome on Saturday and Sunday hosted two games in tribute to CTBC Brothers’ star Chou Szu-chi (周思齊) ahead of his retirement from the CPBL. The games each attracted about 40,000 people, filling the stadium to capacity. However, amid heavy rain, many people reported water leaking on some seats, at the entrance and exit areas, and the
BIG collection: The herbarium holds more than 560,000 specimens, from the Japanese colonial period to the present, including the Wulai azalea, which is now extinct in the wild The largest collection of plant specimens in Taiwan, the Taipei Botanical Garden’s herbarium, is celebrating its 100th anniversary with an exhibition that opened on Friday. The herbarium provides critical historical documents for botanists and is the first of its kind in Taiwan, Taiwan Forestry Research Institute director Tseng Yen-hsueh (曾彥學) said. It is housed in a two-story red brick building, which opened during 1924. At the time, it stored 30,000 plant specimens from almost 6,000 species, including Taiwanese plant samples collected by Tomitaro Makino, the “father of Japanese botany,” Tseng said. The herbarium collection has grown in the century since its