Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday denied a media report that China had asked her to recognize the so-called “1992 consensus” before she would be allowed to visit the country next month. Chen, a member of the Democratic Progressive Party, said she has no plans to visit China at the moment.
The Chinese-language Next Magazine yesterday reported that Chen had planned to pay a visit to a northeastern region of China next month, but the plan was dropped after China demanded that Chen recognize the “1992 consensus” as a precondition for the visit.
Asked to comment on the report, Chen said: “The city’s Tourism Bureau is planning a visit to China next month; as for me, I don’t have such a plan at the moment.”
Chen added that she has always believed that, when it is beneficial for the development of the city and for cross-strait relations, there should be more frequent cross-strait exchanges.
“The two sides [of the Taiwan Strait] should work together to create a mutually friendly atmosphere by putting aside their differences while finding similarities,” Chen said, adding that there were very good interactions between the two countries when Kaohsiung hosted the World Games in 2009 and the Asia-Pacific Cities Summit in 2013.
Speaking at a press conference in Beijing, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Fan Liqing (范麗青) said China welcomes all organizations, government agencies at different levels and individuals from Taiwan, as long as they support the “1992 consensus,” oppose Taiwanese independence, and agree with the idea that Taiwan and China are “one country.”
The “1992 consensus” refers to a supposed tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party that both Taiwan and China acknowledge there is “one China, with each side having its own interpretation of what that means.”
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
RSS