Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) yesterday said the council has authorized the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) to negotiate with China on nuclear safety.
If both sides come to an agreement, the issue would be placed on the agenda of the next high-level cross-strait talks between SEF Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and his Chinese counterpart, Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), this year, she said.
“We will do our best to put the issue of nuclear safety on the agenda of the upcoming Chiang-Chen meeting,” she told the legislature’s Judiciary and Organic Laws and Statutes Committee. “China’s Taiwan Affairs Office [TAO] has responded positively to our proposal.”
TAO spokeswoman Fan Liqing (范麗青) said yesterday in Beijing that China attached great importance to nuclear safety, which she said concerned the wellbeing of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
Exchange channels for nuclear safety and technology have been smooth, she said, adding that the two sides could propose ideas or “discuss and communicate” with each other if they think it is necessary.
During the upcoming Chiang-Chen meeting, the two sides have agreed to negotiate two issues on the protection of investment and dispute settlement. If all goes well, they hope to sign agreements on these two areas, she said.
In the aftermath of Japan’s magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami on March 11, which sparked a radiation leak at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said on Tuesday that nuclear safety would become an important issue in future cross-strait negotiations after he expressed the hope last week that Taipei and Beijing could cooperate in this area.
Lai yesterday said that the Ma administration would take a pro-active approach to achieve these goals, given the importance and urgency of nuclear safety across the Taiwan Strait.
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians
The lowest temperature in a low-lying area recorded early yesterday morning was in Miaoli County’s Gongguan Township (公館), at 6.8°C, due to a strong cold air mass and the effect of radiative cooling, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. In other areas, Chiayi’s East District (東區) recorded a low of 8.2°C and Yunlin County’s Huwei Township (虎尾) recorded 8.5°C, CWA data showed. The cold air mass was at its strongest from Saturday night to the early hours of yesterday. It brought temperatures down to 9°C to 11°C in areas across the nation and the outlying Kinmen and Lienchiang (Matsu) counties,
STAY VIGILANT: When experiencing symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning, such as dizziness or fatigue, near a water heater, open windows and doors to ventilate the area Rooftop flue water heaters should only be installed outdoors or in properly ventilated areas to prevent toxic gas from building up, the Yilan County Fire Department said, after a man in Taipei died of carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday last week. The 39-year-old man, surnamed Chen (陳), an assistant professor at Providence University in Taichung, was at his Taipei home for the holidays when the incident occurred, news reports said. He was taking a shower in the bathroom of a rooftop addition when carbon monoxide — a poisonous byproduct of combustion — leaked from a water heater installed in a poorly ventilated
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