WSJ Crap: Taiwan fears becoming a pawn in donald trumps game

http://www.wsj.com/articles/taiwan-fears-becoming-a-pawn-in-donald-trumps-game-1484821803?mod=e2fb

My Opinion: U.S. Hopes Taiwan delegation at Trump inauguration: could 'disturb Sino-US relations'

The rags of the western propaganda, The Guardian, NY Times, Washington Post, etc., the false news that we have been hearing about, like to tease China and other countries defending the interests of their people against U.S./NATO WASP imperialism. Make no mistake about it, the tongue sticking out of Uncle Sam's mouth in no way helps American workers decimated by low income, outsourced jobs by American corporations that are no fault of China's, polluted waterway from oil pipelines and franking, attack on the middle class and union protection,. The U.S. government couldn't care less about Americans' interest.  China is not worried about it. The American people should be worried about it instead, because for the money that goes into the military industrial complex at the expense of public programs and social service, they should be thanking China for ignoring the threats of a bully. 

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/19/trump-inauguration-deepens-rift-with-china-over-taiwan

17 detained in Shandong to protest 7 million yuan in arrears On 1 December, workers took to the streets in Jining, Shandong province, to protest wages owed to them by construction developer Mingcheng Xinlingyu (New Horizon). The workers were owed 7 million yuan collectively for the construction of a local government building, amounting to 20,000 yuan per person. Police arrived on the scene and detained several workers; many were injured in the process. While some of those arrested were released from custody, 17 were charged with disturbing public order and detained for a week or more. In 2016 police were called in 25% of the time during construction worker actions, according to CLB’s strike map, and workers were subjected to violence and arrest.

20 jumpers scale Nanning mall to protest wage arrears

More than 20 migrant workers climbed the Wanda mall complex in Nanning, Guangxi, 13 December, threatening to jump from the rooftop if their wages were not paid before the Lunar New Year.
Like most large developers in China, Wanda relies heavily upon layers of subcontracting to build its projects. When workers demanded their wages, the construction company pointed the finger at the project’s subcontractor, who had already disappeared without paying workers.
Workers decided to take collective action to draw attention to their predicament. Not long after taking to the roof of the building, local government officials intervened and promised to settle the wages by the following day.

Annual wave of construction worker protests in full swing, officials fret over solution

China’s largest annual migration will soon kickoff as China’s migrant workers head home to celebrate the Lunar New Year, which falls at the end of January in 2017. In the month of December, protests over wage arrears surged, particularly in the construction industry, as workers took collective action to ensure they do not go home empty-handed.
Despite years of efforts to prevent them, government officials still struggle to prevent this annual surge in worker protests. In a recent interview, top officials from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security pointed to the industry’s widespread usage of subcontractors, flimsy governmental oversight and general economic downturn as factors that contribute to arrear disputes, and noted that worker collective actions remain extremely common for workers experiencing wage arrears.
Across the country construction workers blocked roads, protested at government buildings and even threatened suicide to get the attention of the local government and pressure their bosses to pay them their wages.

‘One China’ being negotiated: Trump

BARGAINING CHIP?President Tsai Ing-wen said her administration would be able to handle the nation’s place in US-China relations and ‘put Taiwan’s interests first’

Reuters

The national flags of Japan, Taiwan, the US and the Netherlands (L-R) hanging outside the Imperial Hotel Taipei in Taipei yesterday. Diplomatic relations between the United States and the Asian region are expected to change as US President-elect Donald Trump has said that the ‘one China’ policy on Taiwan is up for negotiation under his administration.

Photo: EPA

US president-elect Donald Trump said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that he would not commit to the “one China” policy until he sees progress from Beijing in its currency and trade practices.

In excerpts from the hour-long interview published on Friday, Trump, when asked if he supported the “one China” policy toward Taiwan that has underpinned US relations with Beijing for decades, said: “Everything is under negotiation, including ‘one China.’”

“We sold them [Taiwan] US$2 billion of military equipment last year. We can sell them US$2 billion of the latest and greatest military equipment, but we’re not allowed to accept a phone call. First of all, it would have been very rude not to accept the phone call,” Trump said in the interview.

In a previous interview with Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace last month, Trump questioned the need for Washington to stick to its “one China” policy.

“I fully understand the ‘one China’ policy, but I don’t know why we have to be bound by a ‘one China’ policy unless we make a deal with China having to do with other things, including trade,” he said at the time.

Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) at the time said that the office had no comment about Trump’s remarks on the Fox show.

While in El Salvador on Friday, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), in response to reporters’ questions on concerns that Taiwan might become a bargaining chip in the relationship between the US and China, said she had heard the view.

“I feel that we are able to deal with such things and will put Taiwan’s interests first,” she said.

Trump has said he would label China a currency manipulator after he takes office.

In Friday’s interview, he said he would not take that step on his first day in the White House.

“I would talk to them first,” he said. “Certainly they are manipulators, but I’m not looking to do that.”

However, the president-elect made plain his displeasure with China’s currency practices.

“Instead of saying, ‘We’re devaluating our currency,’ they say, ‘Oh, our currency is dropping.’ It’s not dropping. They’re doing it on purpose,” the Wall Street Journal quoted him as saying. “Our companies can’t compete with them now, because our currency is strong and it’s killing us.”

In other news, a personal e-mail of former US secretary of state Hillary Rodham Clinton recently leaked by WikiLeaks suggested an adviser, Jake Sullivan, once shared with her an article titled “To save our economy, ditch Taiwan” by Paul Kane, a former international security research fellow at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

In the article, Kane suggested that US President Barack Obama could bolster US economic security by ending its military assistance and arms sales to Taiwan, in exchange for a write-off of US$1.14 trillion in US debt held by China.

“I saw it and thought it was so clever. Let’s discuss,” said Clinton, who ran against Trump in the US presidential election last year, in the leaked e-mail.

Additional reporting by CNA and staff writer

KMT chaos destabilizing to ties: ex-China official

KMT DECLINE:There is no longer a group in Taiwan that can balance the independence faction, and the only such force now lies in China, Wang Zaixi said

By Lin Liang-sheng and Jake Chung  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is losing its status as a powerful political party and a counterweight to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), leading to the ever-decreasing possibility of peaceful unification, former vice minister of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Wang Zaixi (王在希) said in a recent interview with the Chinese Communist Party-controlled Global Times.

Wang said that the “status quo” is largely supported by ordinary Taiwanese, and any move that would challenge it would likely be opposed.

Asked about the influence of US president-elect Donald Trump on cross-strait affairs, Wang said that at the beginning of Trump’s presidency there would be a period when his administration would seek to cause trouble for China over Taiwan.

However, US support of Taiwan is conditional and would require reciprocation, and Taiwan should consider the possible result should it wish to risk peace, Wang said.

The Taiwan issue has existed for 67 years, and a solution will not be found overnight, Wang said, adding that arbitrarily assigning a time scheme for the resolution of “a complicated issue such as the unification across the Strait is impractical and unscientific.”

Regarding Taiwanese politics, Wang said there no longer exists a force within Taiwan that could counterbalance the pro-Taiwan independence faction, adding that the only such force now lay in China.

The KMT has lost its status as one of the nation’s major political parties, and the factions favoring unification are now scattered, leaving the DPP the sole party in power, Wang said.

Despite the decreasing chance of peaceful cross-strait unification, Beijing would nonetheless attempt to seek a solution peacefully, he said.

Economic sanctions against Taiwan would damage the interests of ordinary Taiwanese, Wang said, adding that Beijing should not seek to use the economy as leverage, but should instead seek to protect it.

Otherwise, China would continue to be unpopular in Taiwan, Wang said.

Meanwhile, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) on Thursday said that both sides of the Taiwan Strait should seek to prevent risks while protecting people’s rights, adding that in the council’s view, nothing about cross-strait affairs is “small potatoes.”

Media reports claiming that cross-strait relations have entered an ice age are overstating the matter, “at least from Taiwan’s perspective,” Chiu said.

In the new year, Taipei would work hard to maintain established structures on cross-strait relations and utilize multiple channels to conduct dialogue with China, he said.

While China places limitations on cross-trait interactions for political reasons, President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) administration would continue to handle cross-strait issues practically and call on China to admit the realities of cross-strait relations, Chiu said.

Additional reporting by CNA

China won’t allow sovereignty ‘fuss’: Xi

’COMPLEX AND SERIOUS’:China’s Taiwan Affairs Office minister said the year ahead would see uncertainty, while the Chinese president extended his New Year’s greetings

Reuters, BEIJING

China would never allow anyone to “make a great fuss” about its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights, President Xi Jinping (習近平) said in his New Year’s address, while China’s top official in charge of Taiwan ties warned of risks ahead this year.

China’s increasingly assertive moves to push its territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea — including building artificial islands — have unnerved its neighbors.

“We adhere to peaceful development, and resolutely safeguard our territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests,” Xi said, in comments carried by state media late on Saturday.

“Chinese would never allow anyone to get away with making a great fuss about it,” he said, without elaborating.

China claims most of the South China Sea. Taiwan, Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam have competing claims.

While Xi made no direct mention of Taiwan, aside from extending New Year’s greetings to Taiwanese, the head of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office in his New Year’s message said that this year would see uncertainty.

“Looking ahead to 2017, the situation in the Taiwan Strait is complex and serious, and the development of relations are facing many uncertain factors and risk,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) said, Xinhua news agency reported.

China hopes that people on both sides can show resolve and courage, to ensure the “correct direction” of the peaceful development of ties, and work to maintain peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, he added.

China’s military has become alarmed by what it sees as US president-elect Donald Trump’s support for Taiwan and is considering strong measures to prevent the nation from moving toward independence, according to a media report citing sources with ties to senior military officers.

Taiwan’s future lies in China: Hung Hsiu-chu

By Alison Hsiao  /  Staff reporter

Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu is surrounded by reporters at Ming Chuan University in Taipei’s Shilin District yesterday.

Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times

Taiwan’s future lies in China, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said yesterday, while reiterating that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Republic of China (ROC) are “not two countries.”

Hung made the remarks in a speech at Ming Chuan University in Taipei, where she talked about her life and views on “the nation and the world.”

She told her young audience not to impose restrictions in their life, work hard whatever job they are in and seek to create their own opportunities.

She also warned them against being captivated by power and losing themselves when in power.

During the question-and-answer session, several Chinese students expressed their affection for Hung and asked her about issues ranging from cross-strait relations to the KMT’s prospects.

When a Chinese student complimented Hung for “promoting unification,” Hung jokingly said: “Don’t you try to get me framed (你不要害死我),” but then added that while many have tried to label her as “red,” she said she is “not afraid.”

Few people “really understand the [ROC] Constitution, the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) and the ‘1992 consensus’; if they do, they would know how cross-strait policy should be developed,” she added.

While praising former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) for maintaining the “status quo” during his eight years in office based on “mutual non-recognition of sovereignty,” “mutual non-denial of governing power,” and the promise of “no unification, no independence and no use of force,” Hung said it is not possible for Taiwan not to move forward forever.

“The reality is [Beijing] believes its sovereignty claim covers Taiwan, and Taiwan vice versa, so the sovereignty claims of the two sides actually overlap,” she said, calling for mutual recognition of governance and a step forward toward political negotiations rather than restricting cross-strait talks to economy-related matters.

The new KMT policy platform that was passed by the party’s national congress in September, which called for enhancing the so-called “1992 consensus” and exploring the possibility of ending cross-strait hostilities by signing a peace accord, is a step in this direction, she said.

However, the new policy platform has sparked controversy even within the party, with senior KMT members, including KMT Vice Chairman Hau Lung-bing (郝龍斌) and former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), expressing their opposition to the changes.

Hung yesterday reiterated that the ROC Constitution refers to “one China” and the “1992 consensus” is “none other than a cross-strait effort to pursue unification,” but with the two sides differing in their interpretations of how it should be achieved.

When a Taiwanese student referred to the ROC and the PRC as “two countries” in his question, Hung interrupted him by saying: “[They are] not two countries.”

When the student asked about her long-term view on cross-strait relations, “whether it would be [Taiwanese] independence, unification or maintaining the ‘status quo,’” Hung said it would either be unification or unification by force.

The future of Taiwan lies in China, the second largest economy in the world, she said.

“While we can no longer retake the mainland, Taiwan can exert its influence [over China] and change its institution,” she said.

Prior to the event, Hung was asked to comment on KMT caucus convener Sufin Siluko’s (廖國棟) remarks on Thursday that he feared the KMT would become more like the “New Party” should Hung be re-elected chairperson.

Hung told reporters that since she became KMT chairperson, the party has not seen a drop-off in membership, but instead, more people wanting to become members.

She also took issue with KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao’s (賴士葆) call for a series of policy debates among chairperson aspirants before the end of next month, saying time should be allowed for preparation.

Additional Reporting by CNA

Academia Sinica: Xi’s dream may become a nightmare

Xi’s dream may become a nightmare

ECONOMIC SUICIDE:Academia Sinica research fellow Joanne Chang told lawmakers that Xi Jinping’s dream could not possibly be realized if cross-strait peace does not exist

By Lu Yi-hsuan and William Hetherington  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

If the situation in the Taiwan Strait destabilizes it would result in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) “China dream” turning into “an horrific nightmare,” Academia Sinica research fellow Joanne Chang (裘兆琳) said yesterday.

The caution came in the wake of an editorial published by China’s state-run Global Times that said Beijing should prepare itself to “arm wrestle” US president-elect Donald Trump and, if necessary, to “Lebanonize” Taiwan and “make the use of military force an actual option to realize reunification.”

Chang, who made the remarks at a hearing held at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to discuss the potential state of Taiwan-US-China relations after Trump is inaugurated next month, said that whenever there is progress in Taiwan-US bilateral relations China responds with bewilderment and threatens military action, citing the firing of missiles toward Taiwan in 1996 and military drills in which Chinese warplanes flew around Taiwan.

In both cases the US intervened, sending military surveillance equipment to observe developments, Chang said, adding that these actions demonstrate the special characteristics of the trilateral relationship.

If one of the three parties in the relationship acts excessively the other two would unite in response, she said, adding that the balance of that relationship must be maintained after Trump takes office.

If there are concerns that Taiwan would become a bargaining chip for Trump’s administration, Taiwan must seek talks with the US and call for a new strategy, she said.

US-China talks since the 1970s have all included discussions about Taiwan, she said.

There is no cause for concern that “bringing up Taiwan with China means the US wants to sacrifice the nation,” Chang said.

Xi’s “China dream” could not possibly be realized if peace does not exist across the Taiwan Strait, she said, adding that no nation has had a thriving economy amid a civil war.

Taiwan has “paid the greatest cost: humiliation,” she said, citing China’s obstruction of the nation’s participation in international organizations, as well as it moves to prevent Taiwan playing its national anthem and displaying the national flag at international events.

“Each of these humiliations by China has made Taiwanese more independence-leaning,” Chang said. “Continuous pressure from China has resulted in a historical high of 60 percent of Taiwanese considering themselves to be [uniquely] ‘Taiwanese.’”

As Beijing prepares to hold its 19th Chinese Communist Party National Congress next year, some analysts said Xi would likely prioritize social stability and would therefore be unlikely to make any major moves regarding the US-China relationship or Taiwan.

Academia Sinica Institute of European and American Studies assistant research fellow David Huang (黃偉峰) said that China sees the current cross-strait situation as a historical opportunity.

Huang pointed to a US visit by Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi (楊潔篪), saying it was a precursor to a planned Trump-Xi meeting to negotiate the “one China” policy.

Xi could be hoping to use the opportunity to suggest political negotiations with Taiwan, Huang said, adding that such negotiations would secure Xi’s place in the history books.

Cross-strait negotiations might come sooner than Taiwan has anticipated, he said, adding that the government should have a strategic plan in place.

Obama warns Trump over Taiwan ties

‘FULL CONFLICT MODE’The US president warned of a ‘very significant’ response if the US president-elect is not cautious in challenging China’s core policy on Taiwan

The Guardian and Reuters, WASHINGTON

US President Barack Obama on Friday holds a year-end news conference in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington.

Photo: AFP

US President Barack Obama has cautioned US president-elect Donald Trump against allowing relations with China to slip into “full conflict mode” after Trump put Beijing’s nose out of joint with a succession of controversial pre-inauguration foreign policy interventions.

Speaking on Friday at what is likely to be his last White House news conference, Obama urged his successor to beware of provoking a “very significant” response from Beijing over Taiwan.

The past two weeks have seen Trump take a series of public swipes at China, accusing Beijing of manipulating the yuan, building “a massive fortress” in the South China Sea and not doing enough to pressure North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.

Most controversially of all, the billionaire has also hinted he might upend nearly four decades of US-China ties by offering greater recognition to the government of Taiwan.

Trump’s questioning of the so-called “one China” principle drew protests from Beijing and led one state-run newspaper to call for swift preparations for a military invasion of Taiwan.

Obama said that, under a decades-old policy, China “views Taiwan as part of China, but recognizes that it has to approach Taiwan as an entity that has its own ways of doing things,” while Taiwan had agreed that, with some autonomy, it would not declare independence.

“That status quo, although not completely satisfactory to any of the parties involved, has kept the peace and allowed the Taiwanese to be a pretty successful ... economy and a people who have a high degree of self-determination,” Obama said.

Obama said he had advised Trump that foreign policy had to be conducted in a systematic, deliberate, intentional way.

Obama said Trump needed to grasp “that for China the issue of Taiwan is as important as anything on their docket.”

“The idea of ‘one China’ is at the heart of their conception as a nation and so if you are going to upend this understanding, you have to have thought through what the consequences are,” Obama said. “Because the Chinese will not treat that the way they will treat some other issues. They won’t even treat it the way they treat issues around the South China Sea, where we have had a lot of tensions. This goes to the core of how they see themselves and their reaction on this issue could end up being very significant.”

In Taipei, the government reiterated that it was committed to maintaining the “status quo” in its relations with China and in promoting peace and stability, and thanked Washington for deepening Taiwan-US relations.

A statement from the Presidential Office said the government looked forward to strengthening that relationship during Trump’s administration.

Obama said the importance of US-China collaboration in areas such as the global economy, security and international affairs was now such that “there is probably no bilateral relationship that carries more significance.”

“And where there is also the potential — if that relationship breaks down or goes into a full conflict mode — that everybody is worse off,” Obama added.

Foreign policy specialists on both sides of the Pacific have expressed concern at the potential for upheaval if Trump’s early forays into China policy continue after he takes office on Jan. 20.

Orville Schell, the head of the Center on US-China Relations at New York’s Asia Society, said that by threatening to defy Beijing over Taiwan Trump had “bearded the dragon.”

“He has probed the most sensitive nerve in US-China relations — the territorial integrity of the motherland and the idea of the inevitable return of Taiwan to the motherland’s embrace,” Schell said. “I am intrigued with Trump’s ability to disequilibrate what was something of a standoff” between the US and China.

Obama’s “virtue was to try to be consistent, steadfast and not to react too much from the gut and too emotionally. And here you have an incoming president who is exactly the opposite in each of those categories,” Schell added.

Then-US president Jimmy Carter switched diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979, relegating Taiwan to part of “one China.”

Taiwan Legislative body agrees on vital parts of referendum bill

Legislative body agrees on vital parts of referendum bill

THRESHOLD LOWEREDThe Internal Administration Committee reach a consensus to allow a referendum outcome to be considered passed by a majority where more than one-quarter of the electorate submit a valid vote

By Hsiao Ting-fangand Jonathan Chin  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Chi-mai, second right, whispers to DPP Legislator Chao Tien-lin during a meeting to review an amendment to the Referendum Act at the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee in Taipei yesterday.

Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times

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Reviewing proposed amendments to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) yesterday, the Legislative Yuan’s Internal Administration Committee reached a consensus on lowering the voting age, the voting thresholds and the required vote for passage, but failed to agree on articles pertaining to territory changes and cross-strait political negotiations.

The committee passed the proposal to lower the age requirement for referendum voters stipulated by Article 7 of the act, from 20 to 18, after deliberating for one minute, incorporating it into the bill that is to be submitted to the legislature’s general assembly.

An amendment requiring cross-strait political negotiations to be authorized and ratified by referendum, and another making provisions for holding a referendum to amend the constitutional definition of Taiwan’s territories were shelved.

The committee said that lawmakers are to resume deliberations on the two proposals after they have completed the review of other less controversial items.

The proposal requiring cross-strait political negotiations to be authorized and ratified by referendum stalled down after government representatives and several committee members voiced their opposition.

According to the proposal, the government must be authorized by a referendum to initiate political negotiations with Beijing. The agreement must be passed by the legislature with the support of a three-quarters majority of attending lawmakers and three-quarters of all lawmakers must be present for the vote.

After a cross-strait agreement is passed by the legislature, it has to be submitted for a public referendum for ratification. The agreement can only be ratified if it has the support of more than half of the nation’s eligible voters in a valid ballot.

The government is opposed to the amendment because it says the proposal is an infringement on the presidents prerogative to conduct cross-strait political negotiations, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Chen Mei-ling (陳美伶) told the committee.

Chen’s statement is a reversal of the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) previous comments in favor of the proposal.

Rules governing political talks with Beijing should fall under the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), and the high threshold of the ratification process in the legislature and by the referendum are unreasonable impediments to cross-strait relations and possible agreements, People First Party (PFP) Legislator Chen Yi-chieh (陳怡潔) said.

DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) also said oversight set for cross-strait talks should be provided by amending the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area, and the issue “should not be discussed in isolation.”

“The integrity of the legislative process must take precedence over political considerations,” New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said, adding he is not convinced that scrapping the amendment would improve cross-strait relations.

Proposals to enable territorial changes via referendum by amending Article 2 of the Referendum Act were another bone of contention with DPP and NPP lawmakers submitting separate drafts that included the provision.

“Redefining the nation’s territories should be excluded from the amendments proposed to the Referendum Act or we risk contravening the Sixth Amendment of the Republic of China Constitution (ROC), which has established constraints on the legal processes needed to make changes to ROC territories,” Chen said.

Lee said changes in the definition of national territories should be made by amending the Constitution and not by amending the act.

A failure to include the power to redefine national territories in the act would exacerbate the divergence between legal theory and practice, because while having referendum rights is a demonstration that sovereignty lies in the people, the Constitution has no articles on how this right is to be exercised, and if “territorial change” is not an item that can be put to a referendum, the rights granted by the Constitution cannot be substantiated, NPP Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said.

While the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has always been against voting on territory-related issues, KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (黃昭順) did not oppose the proposal yesterday, saying; “The KMT knows how to roll with a good thing.”

The proposals to lower the signature threshold from 0.5 percent to 0.01 percent of the electorate to initiate a referendum proposal and to lower the threshold to put a referendum proposal to the vote from 5 percent to 1.5 percent of the electorate, also had the support of lawmakers across party lines. The committee reached a consensus to allow a referendum outcome to be considered passed when the number of yes votes reaches that of one-quarter of the electorate and the number of yes votes is more than that of nay votes.

PRC warns over ‘one China’ principle

Reuters, BEIJING and TAIPEI

China yesterday warned that any interference with or damage to the “one China” principle would have a serious impact on peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, as Taiwan said maintaining peace was in everyone’s interest.

US president-elect Donald Trump on Sunday said that the US did not necessarily have to stick to its long-standing position that Taiwan is part of “one China,” further upsetting China, which was already angered by Trump’s earlier telephone call with President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).

The issue is highly sensitive for China and Beijing has expressed “serious concern” about Trump’s remarks.

An Fengshan (安峰山), a spokesman for China’s Taiwan Affairs Office, told a regularly scheduled news conference in Beijing that the Taiwan issue was about China’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.

“Upholding the ‘one China’ principle is the political basis of developing China-US relations, and is the cornerstone of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” he said.

“If this basis is interfered with or damaged, then the healthy, stable development of China-US relations is out of the question, and peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait will be seriously impacted,” An said.

In Taipei, the Mainland Affairs Council said peaceful relations were a mutual responsibility across both sides of the Strait.

“Taiwan has repeatedly stressed that maintaining peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and throughout the region is in the best interests of all parties,” council spokesman Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. “Taiwan places equal weight on the development of Taiwan-US relations and cross-strait relations.”

China has repeatedly warned that hard-won peace and stability across the Strait that could be affected by any moves toward independence.

“I think the facts tell these people that Taiwan independence is a dead end,” An said.

A senior US defense official on Tuesday said that Taiwan’s defense spending had not kept pace with the threat posed by China and should be increased.

Taiwan’s annual defense spending has not hit 3 percent of GDP in recent years, which some military and political experts in Taiwan and elsewhere have said should be the minimum level.

“Taiwan’s defense spending factors in external threats and the nation’s annual budget,” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Major General Chen Chung-chi (陳中吉) said.

“Our premier has said previously that the Cabinet can look to use a special budget to meet defense needs in an emergency situation,” he said.

In Beijing, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Geng Shuang (耿爽) said the US needed to handle the Taiwan issue cautiously to avoid ties with China receiving unnecessary interference.

“As for the so-called issue of Taiwan being threatened, I think we’ve said many times that we oppose the US and Taiwan having any form of official contacts or military relations,” Geng told a daily news briefing.

China closes door on Taiwan independence-espousing firms

China closes door on independence-espousing firms

Staff writer, with CNA

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) yesterday said that China does not welcome investments from Taiwanese companies that promote Taiwanese independence.

Responding to questions from Taiwanese investors at a conference in Henan Province, Zhang said China has made it clear that its policy toward Taiwan has not changed since President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) took office on May 20.

“China will not allow those Taiwanese investors that advocate Taiwan independence to make money here,” Zhang said.

He said that since the DPP came to power, Beijing has not changed its “one China” policy and has maintained the so-called “1992 consensus” as the foundation of exchanges between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait.

The deterioration in cross-strait exchanges has resulted from the DPP government’s refusal to recognize the “1992 consensus,” Zhang said, referring to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party that both sides acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.

In 2006, former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted he made up the term in 2000, before the KMT handed over power to the DPP.

In Taipei, Mainland Affairs Council Deputy Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) on Thursday said that the government was not pleased to hear about Beijing’s discrimination against Taiwanese investors who hold political views that Chinese authorities disagree with.

The council will consider what measures, if any, to take to deal with the situation, Chiu said.

Meanwhile, Chinese reports said that Taiwanese seafood restaurant chain Hai Pa Wang was fined for mislabeling food items such as fish balls that are produced at a factory in Chengdu.

Some reports said that the fines were imposed because the company’s owners have a good relationship with Tsai’s family.

Zhang said when asked by investors that as far as he was aware, Hai Pa Wang had been fined for breaching food safety regulations.