Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday said that “no legislative caucus is opposed to the nation’s intention to join China’s proposed Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank [AIIB].”
However, he also added in comments made after a closed-door meeting with Executive Yuan officials and legislative caucus representatives across party lines that there would be no entering the bank “if national dignity is not maintained.”
Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) and ministers involved in the handling of the bid to join the bank visited the Legislative Yuan, meeting Wang and the opposition parties’ caucus whips to discuss the bid.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
The move to has been met with suspicion from opposition lawmakers and sparked protests late on Tuesday night.
Wang told a press conference after the meeting that none of the caucuses are against the idea of applying for membership to the Beijing-based institution, adding that communication between the two branches of government, such as yesterday’s meeting, is encouraged and would be initiated more often to build a better political culture.
Wang said that the Executive Yuan officials visited the legislature to respond to the caucuses’ misgivings about the government’s bid, and each caucus had expressed its views on how lawmakers could make sure national dignity is retained and that the responsibility to oversee the government is maintained.
“We also agreed that we would rather give up on the bid if the terms are not in the nation’s best interests or [participation] would damage national dignity,” Wang said.
Mao said there are “many international precedents when it comes to the question about an appropriate name, and that is what we need to continue to negotiate in the future,” when asked by reporters what name the nation’s application might be made under.
“What needs to be confirmed first is whether we are to be accepted as a member,” the premier said.
“The name would be discussed only after we have become a member and at the stage when the articles of the organization are laid out,” he added.
When asked whether Taiwan would join as “Chinese Taipei,” as it is commonly called in international organizations that it participates in, including the Olympics, Mao said: “I would say it is only one of the options.”
Wang said that government officials would attend and report on the bid to the legislature’s Foreign and National Defense Committee meeting today, “where lawmakers have the chance to examine the bid and work on inter-yuan cooperation.”
Separately yesterday, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus held its own press conference after the meeting with Executive Yuan officials and caucus whips, at which it addressed accusations made by protesters that the bid to join the bank had been done in secret in the same way as the cross-strait service trade agreement was signed.
The KMT caucus panned accusations of the bid being the result of a “black-box” decision, saying the comments were “over-politicizing” the matter.
“We do not even know if Beijing will allow us to join, yet already there is this internal divide,” KMT deputy caucus whip Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟) said.
“I do not understand where in the process that [Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson] Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) found the application process to be a ‘black-box’ decision,” Liao said.
“This is completely different from how the cross-strait service trade agreement was done, which only came back [to the legislature] after it had proceeded to the very end [of its negotiations],” KMT caucus whip Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said.
“With the AIIB, we are only at the door-knocking stage, so there is no possibility of ‘black-box’ decisionmaking,” Lai added.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RESPONSE: The government would investigate incidents of Taiwanese entertainers in China promoting CCP propaganda online in contravention of the law, the source said Taiwanese entertainers living in China who are found to have contravened cross-strait regulations or collaborated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) could be subject to fines, a source said on Sunday. Several Taiwanese entertainers have posted on the social media platform Sina Weibo saying that Taiwan “must be returned” to China, and sharing news articles from Chinese state media. In response, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has asked the Ministry of Culture to investigate whether the entertainers had contravened any laws, and asked for them to be questioned upon their return to Taiwan, an official familiar with the matter said. To curb repeated
Myanmar has turned down an offer of assistance from Taiwanese search-and-rescue teams after a magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck the nation on Friday last week, saying other international aid is sufficient, the National Fire Agency said yesterday. More than 1,700 have been killed and 3,400 injured in the quake that struck near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay early on Friday afternoon, followed minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Worldwide, 13 international search-and-rescue teams have been deployed, with another 13 teams mobilizing, the agency said. Taiwan’s search-and-rescue teams were on standby, but have since been told to stand down, as
RSS