Economist Honigmann Hong (洪財隆) was appointed director of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Department of China Affairs as DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) filled the last three remaining spots of department heads.
Hong, an assistant economics professor at National Tsing Hua University, will take over the Department of China Affairs, which was reinstated on July 25 after being merged with the Department of International Affairs for five years, DPP spokesperson Lin Chun-hsien (林俊憲) told a press conference.
Su, who finally completed his political team roster after assuming the party’s leadership in May, picked Hong, 46, for his expertise in regional economics, a key issue in cross-strait relations, Lin said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
The reinstatement of the department and a plan to establish a China Affairs Committee as a policy-making platform have been seen as attempts to improve the DPP’s ties with Beijing.
The establishment of the much-discussed committee, which is expected to oversee the DPP’s China policy, is still in the works. Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) was reportedly interested in leading it.
Additionally, Chang Chi-chang (張基長), a Su confidant, was named director of the Department of Youth Development, while Ho Po-wen (何博文), a journalist-turned-political commentator, was tapped as director of the Democracy Institute, Lin said.
In related news, Su convened a meeting to discuss the party’s position and strategy on a proposed cross-strait investment protection agreement, which could be finalized in an eighth round of cross-strait negotiations on Thursday.
The meeting, which gathered party officials and more than a dozen legislators to seek a unified position on the issue, concluded with four demands to President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
First, the DPP insisted that the agreement must protect the personal safety and basic human rights of Taiwanese businesspeople in China, Lin said, adding that China should notify Taiwan within 24 hours of all cases of Taiwanese being detained and allow detained Taiwanese to hire lawyers.
Second, he said, regulations on Chinese investment in Taiwan should be written into law and government agencies should be established to monitor the investments.
Third, Lin said, cross-strait negotiation should be transparent and monitored by the Legislative Yuan because the opaque negotiation process in the past four years was the primary reason the academics and the legislature were concerned about the bilateral talks.
Last, the DPP urged the government to conduct thorough reviews on the implementation of the 16 agreements signed in the past before moving forward, Lin said.
The implementation of those agreements was questionable because Hon Hai Group chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) was still complaining about infringement of intellectual property rights (IPR) in China two years after Taiwan and China signed the IPR agreement, Lin said.
Meanwhile, China remains a haven for Taiwanese criminals, despite the Joint Fight against Crime and Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement having gone into effect in June 2009, Lin said.
The DPP has no plans to organize any form of protest against the cross-strait talks, Lin said, but it would not bar its party members from taking part in protests.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
‘MALIGN PURPOSE’: Governments around the world conduct espionage operations, but China’s is different, as its ultimate goal is annexation, a think tank head said Taiwan is facing a growing existential threat from its own people spying for China, experts said, as the government seeks to toughen measures to stop Beijing’s infiltration efforts and deter Taiwanese turncoats. While Beijing and Taipei have been spying on each other for years, experts said that espionage posed a bigger threat to Taiwan due to the risk of a Chinese attack. Taiwan’s intelligence agency said China used “diverse channels and tactics” to infiltrate the nation’s military, government agencies and pro-China organizations. The main targets were retired and active members of the military, persuaded by money, blackmail or pro-China ideology to steal
RSS