Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Chang Rong-kung (張榮恭) yesterday called on President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration to respond to China’s new “incentive measures” for Taiwan in kind.
The government rebuked the measures, which were unveiled on Sunday after KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun’s (鄭麗文) meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Friday.
That leaders of important political parties on both sides of the Taiwan Strait can sit down to discuss peace is a major historical development, Chang said.
Photo: Reuters
Xi responded positively to Cheng’s proposals on improving people’s livelihoods, he said, adding that the 10 new measures show that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is also focused on people’s well-being.
The Lai administration and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have responded negatively to the measures and Cheng’s meeting with Xi, Chang said.
As China has shown goodwill, the Lai administration should reciprocate, he said.
Many details must be worked out through further cross-strait communication to implement the proposals, and the KMT could be a bridge in those discussions, but a response of goodwill would be a positive start, he said.
Opponents to the visit do not need to characterize the measures as “sugar-coated poison” or the “KMT-CCP-ization” of cross-strait relations, Chang said.
“If the DPP government is willing to respond in good faith and prioritize the public’s interests, then the ruling and opposition parties could engage in healthy discussions over the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, ultimately benefiting Taiwan as a whole,” he said.
For example, then-KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) in February 2005 tasked Chang to visit China to assess whether Beijing would agree to the first cross-strait Lunar New Year charter flights, he said.
He said he received positive signal and helped advance the proposal.
At the time, the KMT was in the opposition, and the launch of direct flights also required approval from then-president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration, Chang said.
In effect, the initiative was facilitated by the KMT and agreed to by the DPP government, so both sides shared credit for the outcome, he said.
When Beijing announced the 10 new measures, it did not attach requirements related to the so-called “1992 consensus” or opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chang said.
If Lai’s administration were to see the measures as a goodwill gesture, it could greatly improve cross-strait interactions, he said.
The “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000, refers to a tacit understanding between the KMT and the Chinese government that both sides of the Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
The DPP has never acknowledged the “1992 consensus.”
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
MULTIPRONGED APPROACH: China has sought to pressure Palau across a number of fronts, but the island nation has staunchly resisted overtures to ditch Taiwan Palau has been firm in backing Taiwan despite Chinese pressure that uses tourism economics, cyberattacks and criminal infiltration as tools to threaten the Pacific ally into renouncing its recognition of Taiwan as a sovereign state. The Presidential Office yesterday announced that Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would visit Palau from Saturday to Wednesday next week at the invitation of Palauan President Surangel Whipps Jr. Whipps in April said in an interview that China had outspokenly asked Palau to “denounce Taiwan.” “And we have said: ‘We have no enemies, but nobody tells us who our friends are,’” he said. Whipps has told reporters multiple times
RSS