Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦) yesterday paid homage to Sun Yat-sen (孫逸仙), the founding father of the Republic of China (ROC), in a visit to Sun’s mausoleum in the Chinese city of Nanjing and mentioned the ROC in his remarks despite Chinese officials and media playing down the comments.
Wang yesterday became the first ROC official to visit the Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in his official capacity, on the second day of his four-day visit to China.
On Tuesday, Wang and his Chinese counterpart, Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍), held the first meeting between Taiwanese and Chinese ministers since 1949, when the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) fled to Taiwan following its defeat by the Chinese Communist Party in the Chinese Civil War.
Photo:AFP
“It has been 103 years since Sun Yat-sen founded the ROC, the first democracy in Asia. We could in the past only pay tribute to the founding father in Taipei, but I am able to visit here today in my capacity as MAC minister,” Wang told reporters and the crowd in the Boai Plaza in front of the mausoleum.
Several Taiwanese pan-blue camp politicians had visited the mausoleum in the past in non-governmental capacities, including former Straits Exchange Foundation president Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤), former KMT chairmen Lien Chan (連戰) and Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄), and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
Taiwan Affairs Office officials were not accompanying Wang when he made the remarks.
In an eulogy Wang recited in front of Sun’s grave earlier, he mentioned Sun’s Three Principles of the People, the five-power Constitution and the so-called “1992 consensus,” also noting that people on both sides of the strait belong to the “Zhonghua” (中華) culture and it was imperative to “face reality.”
Responding to media inquiries about Wang’s remarks, Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) only praised Sun as “a great pioneer of China’s democratic revolution” without elaborating on Wang’s comments, according to China’s state-owned China News Service.
Chinese media, including the state mouthpieces CCTV and the Xinhua news agency, omitted Wang’s remarks about the ROC and the call for “facing reality” in their coverage.
Later yesterday, Wang delivered a speech to Nanjing University students, calling for closer youth exchanges across the Taiwan Strait and “peaceful coexistence.”
Wang’s visit to China so far has drawn mixed responses from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU).
DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday that while Wang and Zhang’s addressing each other using their official titles was “a small step for progress,” Wang’s failure to address human rights and the ROC in front of Zhang was lamentable.
In a press release issued late on Tuesday night, the DPP’s Department of China Affairs director Honigmann Hong (洪財隆) described the meeting as a “quasi-political negotiation” without authorization from Taiwanese.
Hong added that the nominal meeting had failed to reach substantial consensus on the issues of press freedom, human rights, investment protection and joint crime-fighting, among others.
TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) said in a press release that Wang’s remarks about the ROC were only “self-amusement” because there was no Chinese official present and the Chinese media would not report about it.
Wang is due to attend a forum and hold talks with Chinese think tanks today before wrapping up his trip and returning to Taipei tomorrow.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
OFF-TARGET: More than 30,000 participants were expected to take part in the Games next month, but only 6,550 foreign and 19,400 Taiwanese athletes have registered Taipei city councilors yesterday blasted the organizers of next month’s World Masters Games over sudden timetable and venue changes, which they said have caused thousands of participants to back out of the international sporting event, among other organizational issues. They also cited visa delays and political interference by China as reasons many foreign athletes are requesting refunds for the event, to be held from May 17 to 30. Jointly organized by the Taipei and New Taipei City governments, the games have been rocked by numerous controversies since preparations began in 2020. Taipei City Councilor Lin Yen-feng (林延鳳) said yesterday that new measures by
RSS