Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday that people should not read too much into the visit to China by former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), nor view it as having considerable political significance.
The focus should be on “mutual understanding through exchanges” and Taiwanese society should use a broad perspective to evaluate Hsieh’s visit while taking it in their stride, Tsai said when asked about Hsieh’s visit.
According to Tsai, given that Hsieh is one of the DPP’s founding members and thus the highest-ranking DPP member to have visited China to date, his journey would inevitably come under public scrutiny.
Photo: Liu Hnsi-de, Taipei Times
However, she added, the greatest outcome from Hsieh’s visit was for China to understand that “we can continue interaction with the country.”
The point of the visit is to achieve a mutual understanding with each other through interaction, she added.
The visit is an action in progress, with each meeting and interaction made in the hope that mutual understanding can be boosted, Tsai said, adding that there was no need to read too much into one visit.
When asked if Hsieh’s comment “traveling across the world is only for the courageous; the cowardly find it hard to even take the first step” was a subtle way to urge the party to re-evaulate its China policies, Tsai said that Hsieh most likely did not mean it in such a way.
It took courage for him to take that step forward, of that it is certain, Tsai said, adding that she hoped both the DPP and wider Taiwanese society would not attach too much political meaning to the trip.
Asked if she has any plans to visit China, Tsai said she “has no such plans at present.”
Separately yesterday, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) said anyone can visit China, but the most important thing is to ask why.
“Anyone can go, whether its for business or for socializing, the path is open, but the purpose and the attitude of the trip is the most important issue,” Lee said, adding that while, in terms of Taiwan-China relations, China was not an enemy both sides are still separate entities.
“They are China, we are Taiwan, we’re different, and Taiwan is an independent and sovereign entity,” Lee said.
“We have opened ourselves up too much, so much so that we don’t have a Taiwan — we don’t have any manpower, industry, or technology left. This is inevitable because the person in power does not know how to stand firm in his position and protect his people and how to ‘safely’ invest in China,” he added.
When asked by the media if Hsieh would be subjected to China’s tactics of a “united front” (統戰) during his trip, Lee said that as long as Hsieh stands firm in his own political stance, he would not be influenced.
Additional reporting by Rachel Lin and CNA
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