The relationship between Taiwan and China is one of “two sides of the Taiwan Strait,” Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Deputy Minister Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said yesterday, adding that the media took comments he made earlier out of context by reporting that he called the two sides of the Taiwan Strait “two countries.”
Liang made the response to lawmakers following criticism over the comment he made during a radio interview on Monday last week in which he said the “two sides of the Taiwan Strait” and “the Republic of China (ROC) and People’s Republic of China (PRC)” mean the same thing.
In that comment, he was clarifying an earlier statement made by President William Lai (賴清德) that the ROC and PRC are not subordinate to each other.
Photo: Tien Yu-hua, Taipei Times
During a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee at the Legislative Yuan yesterday, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Legislator Lin Yi-chuan (林憶君) asked Liang to clarify his comment that “two sides of the Strait” and “two countries” are the same, adding that it would be “ridiculous” to not treat the PRC like a country.
Liang said the radio interview was a discussion, and the media took his response out of context to make it “not quite accurate.”
When discussing the practical relationship between the two sides, Liang said he brought up the example of needing an ROC ID to qualify for National Health Insurance, so citizens of the PRC cannot apply.
The MAC was founded in accordance with the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), Liang said.
Therefore, “strictly speaking, it is necessary to talk about the relationship between the Taiwan area and the mainland area, but customary to say the ‘two sides of the Strait,’” he said.
TPP Legislator Chang Chi-kai (張啟楷) asked if this meant he would rescind his “two countries” comment in favor of “two sides of the Strait.”
Liang replied that it was “of course” two sides of the Strait, adding that the “two countries” comment was made by the host of the radio program, not him.
In the interview, the host said that according to the Constitution, it is “two sides of the Strait,” but practically, it is “two countries.”
Liang in response said that is “in essence how it is.”
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
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
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