A senior Chinese official on Sunday said China would take actions to benefit the Taiwanese public, while insisting on the so-called “1992 consensus” and opposing Taiwan independence, which some observers said shows that China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach to cross-strait exchanges.
At the sixth Straits Forum in Xiamen, China, on Sunday, Yu Zhengsheng (俞正聲), China’s top political adviser and a member of the Chinese Communist Party’s Politburo Standing Committee, said the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should have more mutual understanding, respect and tolerance as a family.
He added that Beijing would continue to push for the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and policies that would benefit Taiwanese, as well as enlarging participation in and beneficiaries of cross-strait exchanges.
“We should do things that are good for the peoples on both sides of the Strait, especially things that would benefit the public in Taiwan,” he said.
Yu said China is in the process of deepening reforms and opening up more to the outside world.
“This will provide a very good environment for the people of Taiwan, especially the younger generation, as they can realize their dreams on a larger stage,” he said.
He reiterated that cross-strait relations could be stable and well developed, as long as they are developed on the common basis of “opposing Taiwan independence, insisting on the “1992 consensus” and protecting the “one China” framework.
The “1992 consensus” refers to a supposed understanding that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) says was reached in 1992 between Taiwanese and Chinese representatives, under which both sides claim to have acknowledged that there was “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “one China” means.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and others say that the consensus does not exist.
Former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) said in 2006 that he had made up the term in 2000 before the KMT handed over power to the DPP.
Taiwanese representatives at the forum included Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), New Party Chairman Yu Mu-ming (郁慕明) and Taipei Deputy Mayor Timothy Ting (丁庭宇).
When meeting with Yu, Hung said some people in Taiwan and China are worried that the Sunflower movement would block the development of cross-strait relations.
However, she said she was not so pessimistic.
She said that the issues of the widening gap between the rich and the poor, as well as the younger generation’s dissatisfaction with the government are problems that exist in many countries amid the global trend toward free trade.
While the Sunflower movement may have some impact on the service trade agreement and future cross-strait negotiations, she said it is normal in a democracy for government policies to confront challenges and criticism, adding that the government would be more open and tolerant to negotiate with the public and take challenges, hoping not to delay further cross-strait exchanges.
As the trade pact gives Taiwanese businesses priority in the Chinese market over other foreign capital, Hung added that there have also been many China-based Taiwanese businesspeople complaining that they have been alienated by Chinese laws and policies, despite having invested in China for 20 or 30 years.
Civil society groups yesterday protested outside the Legislative Yuan, decrying Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) efforts to pass three major bills that they said would seriously harm Taiwan’s democracy, and called to oust KMT caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁). It was the second night of the three-day “Bluebird wintertime action” protests in Taipei, with organizers announcing that 8,000 people attended. Organized by Taiwan Citizen Front, the Economic Democracy Union (EDU) and a coalition of civil groups, about 6,000 people began a demonstration in front of KMT party headquarters in Taipei on Wednesday, organizers said. For the third day, the organizers asked people to assemble
POOR IMPLEMENTATION: Teachers welcomed the suspension, saying that the scheme disrupted school schedules, quality of learning and the milk market A policy to offer free milk to all school-age children nationwide is to be suspended next year due to multiple problems arising from implementation of the policy, the Executive Yuan announced yesterday. The policy was designed to increase the calcium intake of school-age children in Taiwan by drinking milk, as more than 80 percent drink less than 240ml per day. The recommended amount is 480ml. It was also implemented to help Taiwanese dairy farmers counter competition from fresh milk produced in New Zealand, which is to be imported to Taiwan tariff-free next year when the Agreement Between New Zealand and
A woman who allegedly spiked the food and drinks of an Australian man with rat poison, leaving him in intensive care, has been charged with attempted murder, the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. The woman, identified by her surname Yang (楊), is accused of repeatedly poisoning Alex Shorey over the course of several months last year to prevent the Australian man from leaving Taiwan, prosecutors said in a statement. Shorey was evacuated back to Australia on May 3 last year after being admitted to intensive care in Taiwan. According to prosecutors, Yang put bromadiolone, a rodenticide that prevents blood from
A Japanese space rocket carrying a Taiwanese satellite blasted off yesterday, but was later seen spiraling downward in the distance as the company said the launch attempt had failed. It was the second attempt by the Japanese start-up Space One to become the country’s first private firm to put a satellite into orbit, after its first try in March ended in a mid-air explosion. This time, its solid-fuel Kairos rocket had been carrying five satellites, including one from the Taiwan Space Agency and others designed by Japanese students and corporate ventures. Spectators gathered near the company’s coastal Spaceport Kii launch pad in Japan’s
RSS