Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday said he would submit a proposal for the establishment of a DPP China affairs department at a party meeting on Wednesday, but party heavyweights said the DPP should solidify its cross-strait position before the department is set up.
Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) told reporters in Taipei yesterday that he and Su both think it is the right time to set up the department since the Chinese Communist Party has concluded its18th Party Congress and ushered in its new leadership.
However, Hsieh said he expected the DPP to form a clear position on cross-strait relations before the proposed body becomes operational.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
The party plans to deal with the motion to establish the department at its Central Standing Committee meeting on Wednesday.
Hsieh said the validity of his “constitutional one China” (憲法一中) framework and how the party interprets its 1999 resolution on Taiwan’s future should be discussed in the meeting.
The former premier added that the “one China” in his framework is the Republic of China (ROC).
He said the party’s 1999 resolution on Taiwan’s future stipulates that the DPP unilaterally opposes the “one China” principle championed by Beijing, but at the same time recognizes the ROC.
Those interpretations need to be further be integrated and a consensus on the DPP’s cross-strait position formed, he added.
Asked whether he had been told by Su to lead the proposed department, Hsieh said Su had not discussed the issue with him.
Meanwhile, Alex Huang (黃重諺), a spokesman for former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) office, said that Tsai agreed with Hsieh and Su the party should integrate the opinions of its members on Taiwan-China relations before the department is established.
DPP spokesperson Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) said the department would surely invite Hsieh and Tsai to join its operations, but Su has not formally invited anyone to lead the department.
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
RSS