Former Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) is scheduled to meet with China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Director Song Tao (宋濤) today in Xiamen as part of his ancestor-worshiping tour in China’s Fujian Province.
Wang departed for China yesterday.
Wang and former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) are attempting to find ways to interact with China to defuse rising tensions and avoid a war between the two countries, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus deputy chief secretary Wang Hong-wei (王鴻薇) said yesterday.
Photo: Tu Chien-jung, Taipei Times
If the Taipei-Shanghai City Forum can be successfully held by the end of this year, it would help to build the solid foundation for peace that people across the Taiwan Strait have been hoping for, she said.
Wang Jin-pyng established a think tank on Wednesday called the “Middle Way Peace Alliance” (中道和平聯盟智庫), while Ma’s foundation invited a group of Chinese students to visit Taiwan, who are expected to arrive on Wednesday next week, she said.
During a lunch hosted by his think tank on Wednesday, Wang Jin-pyng said he would spend his twilight years building a more harmonious political atmosphere domestically and contributing to cross-strait peace, adding that the think tank would recruit members across party lines to help him achieve those goals.
“Everybody hopes for cross-strait peace. Taiwan has bought NT$20 billion [US$650 million] of military equipment from the US, which has yet to delivered, and US president-elect Donald Trump is filling his would-be Cabinet positions with anti-China hawks. The cross-strait tension would only rise,” KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said.
Wang Jin-pyng’s appeal to unite Taiwan, contribute to cross-strait peace and facilitate reconciliation between the ruling and opposition parties is a good start, Lai said.
“We are facing a precarious international situation, and each of us should ask ourselves how we can contribute,” KMT Legislator Hsieh Long-jie (謝龍介) said, adding that the government’s national security team should spend more time thinking about ways to create peace and dialogue.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon this morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan between Friday and Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The storm, which as of 8am was still 1,100km southeast of southern Taiwan, is currently expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, the CWA said. Because of its rapid speed — 28kph as of 8am — a sea warning for the storm could be issued tonight, rather than tomorrow, as previously forecast, the CWA said. In terms of its impact, Usagi is to bring scattered or
An orange gas cloud that leaked from a waste management plant yesterday morning in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) was likely caused by acidic waste, authorities said, adding that it posed no immediate harm. The leak occurred at a plant in the district’s Environmental Science and Technology Park at about 7am, the Taoyuan Fire Department said. Firefighters discovered a cloud of unidentified orange gas leaking from a waste tank when they arrived on the site, it said, adding that they put on Level A chemical protection before entering the building. After finding there was no continuous leak, the department worked with the city’s Department
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