The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it did not know what was delaying three planned financial memorandums of understanding (MOU) with China, but rejected the possibility that Beijing would use it as a bargaining chip to demand something in return.
MAC Deputy Minister Liu Te-shun (劉德勳) said he did not think Beijing would use the three MOUs as bargaining chips because they are normal for many countries, although it is the first time that Taipei and Beijing have decided to sign such a document.
“I have not heard of any external factors [to delay the MOUs],” Liu said.
“Because the MOUs are simple in nature, it would be strange to use them as an apparatus to demand something else,” he said.
Liu said he did not know exactly what had stalled the process of signing the three financial MOUs, but that the council hoped they would be signed soon.
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) said it expected to sign the three MOUs in July. Liu said he was “quite surprised” when he heard that the FSC had made such an announcement.
Liu said that while the FSC did not report to his council on a daily basis, MAC officials were regularly informed of the MOUs’ progress.
The last time his council had heard from the FSC was at the end of last month when the commission said “things were pretty much ready,” Liu said.
Both sides signed an agreement in June this year on financial cooperation, which will be followed by signing three financial MOUs on banking, insurance and securities and futures.
Liu said that because financial MOUs were highly professional and technical in nature, they did not concern politics. If Beijing had wanted to politicize the issue, it would have done so when the agreement was signed in June, he said.
The next round of cross-strait high-level talks will be held in Taichung in mid or late December.
Liu said a security task force had been established to ensure the safety of Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林).
Activists staged protests against Chen’s visit at the Grand Formosa Regent Hotel when he attended the second Chiang-Chen meeting in Taipei in November last year. He was there to attend a dinner hosted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Because Chiang did not meet Chinese Communist Party Chairman Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) during the third Chiang-Chen meeting in Nanjing in June, Liu said he did not expect Chen to meet President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who doubles as KMT chairman.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
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