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.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS