Taiwan-China Relations

Defense ministry confirms spy swap

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-11-30
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

The Ministry of National Defense (MND) confirmed that two of

Defense ministry confirms spy swap. Central News Agency

its senior intelligence agents kidnapped and held by China for the past nine years have been released and repatriated to Taiwan in October in exchange for one of its own, reports said Monday.

The spy swap marked the first of its kind across the Taiwan Strait following the meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou and Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore last month.

“The two agents have since returned from Beijing on October 13 after a unilateral agreement reached on both sides,” ministry spokesman Major General David Lo confirmed in the morning, citing that Hong Kong national Li Zhihao, who was serving a life sentence for espionage in Taiwan, had his request for a parole granted and was also released in late October after spending 16 years in jail. [FULL STORY]

INTERVIEW: Consensus calls for legislative reform: Wang

The Legislative Yuan should always be included in the decisionmaking process when it comes to cross-strait policies, regardless of which political party is voted into the Presidential Office, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng said in an interview with staff reporter Tzou Jiing-wen of the ‘Liberty Times’ (the sister newspaper of the ‘Taipei Times’), adding that the legislature’s exclusion from such processes would only deepen distrust among the public

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 30, 2015

Liberty Times (LT): President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) was “building a bridge” on which to normalize visits between leaders from both sides of the Taiwan Strait. Do you consider this “bridge” to be steady?

Wang Jin-pyng (王金平): Everyone has their own view on whether the “bridge” is steady. When I said to look on the bright side and not take everything negatively, I meant that one should endeavor to see the silver lining of a cloud and act upon it. As the saying goes: “To meet someone projects some sincerity” (見面三分情). Having established a precedent enables future leaders to follow suit when the need arises.

The majority of the public’s discontent stems from a lack of trust. People wish for more transparency in policymaking, want to make their opinions known and hope for their opinions to be acted on. [FULL STORY]

Trade negotiators fail to reach deal

TRADE IN GOODS:Consensuses have been reached with China on special rules of origin and on technical barriers of trade, but several major issues were unresolved

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 25, 2015
By: Staff writer, with CNA

Delegates in the 12th round of negotiations over a cross-strait trade in goods agreement on Monday failed to narrow their differences over several major issues, but Taiwan’s team still hopes to “make major progress” by the end of this year.

“Both negotiating teams have demonstrated their determination and sincerity,” reaching a number of consensuses, but differences remain over some issues and the two sides have decided to hold another round of talks next month in Taipei, head of the Taiwanese negotiating team Board of Foreign Trade Director-General Yang Jen-ni (楊珍妮) said.

The agreement, if reached, would reduce or eliminate tariffs on many goods traded between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, including automobile parts, machinery products, petrochemical products and display panels.

Following three days of talks, one main consensus reached was the clearance of goods within 48 hours of their declaration at customs, Yang said. [FULL STORY]

Taiwan, China agree on speedy custom clearance of imported goods

Cross-strait trade talks spark massive protests in Taipei

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-11-22
By: Ko Lin, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

An agreement has been reached between Taiwan and China to speed up custom

Taiwan, China agree on custom clearance. Central News Agency (2015-11-22 18:13:00)

clearance of imported goods within 48 hours after the declaration of goods, reports said Sunday.

The move was seen by authorities as a stepping stone to make Taiwan’s customs operations more efficient and in line with global trends.

The 12th round of cross-strait meeting entered its second day of trade discussions at the Grand Hotel Taipei in the morning, with both sides seeking to narrow differences in taxation reductions and address other technical issues.

Although the summit still has one more day to go, the pact has already sparked huge controversies as industry observers believed it would pave an easier access for China’s shoddy products and questionable food supplies into the domestic market, claiming it would also deprive the island’s consumers of safe, quality produce. [FULL STORY]

Taiwan, China fail to complete talks on trade-in-goods pact

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/11/23
By: Huang Chiao-wen, Milly Lin and S.C. Chang

Taipei, Nov. 23 (CNA) Delegates to the 12th round of negotiations over a cross-

Yang Jen-ni, director general of the Board of Foreign Trade (second right).

Taiwan Strait trade-in-goods agreement failed on Monday to narrow differences over several major issues, but Taiwan still hopes to “make a major progress” in the talks by the end of this year.

“Both negotiating teams have demonstrated their determination and sincerity,” reaching a number of consensuses, but differences remain over some issues, and the two sides decided to hold another round of talks in mid- or late December in Taipei, said Yang Jen-ni, director general of the Board of Foreign Trade and head of the Taiwanese negotiating team.

The agreement, if reached, would reduce or eliminate tariffs on many goods traded between the two sides, including automobile parts, machinery products, petrochemical products and display panels. [FULL STORY]

Siew may interact with Xi Jinping informally

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/11/17
By: Tang Pei-chun, Emerson Lim and Lee Mei-yu

Manila, Nov. 17 (CNA) Former Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) said Tuesday that there will be no official meeting between him and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) during the upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum summit in Manila because of his tight schedule, but he added that he will interact with Xi informally on any possible occasion.

In a press conference ahead of the summit, Siew denied the possibility of a “Siew-Xi” meeting, because both of them have very tight schedules at this year’s APEC leaders’ meeting.

He noted that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) just met with the Chinese leader 10 days ago in Singapore, and the two leaders have already talked about all outstanding issues in that landmark meeting.

Although there won’t be an official meeting, Siew stressed that there will be many chances to meet with leaders of APEC economies at the summit, and said that he will interact in a “natural manner” with Xi if they meet up on other occasions. [FULL STORY]

Ma-Xi meeting highlights importance of cross-strait development: Jerome Cohen

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 15, 2015
By: Staff writer, with CNA

The meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in Singapore on Nov. 7 is set to impact upon the engagement between Taiwan’s next leader and Beijing, and redirect US attention to the importance of cross-strait development, according to a US academic.

New York University School of Law professor Jarome Cohen said the summit’s immediate impact would be on the presidential and legislative elections slated for Jan. 16.

“It will result in higher priority to cross-strait relations in the developing electoral dialogue and make voters give somewhat less attention to often-decisive domestic issues,” Cohen said, adding that he believes this might boost the floundering Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) — which is trailing behind the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the polls — to a “modest, but insufficient extent.”

However, he said that the more important impact on Taiwan goes beyond the elections.

Cohen said that the Ma-Xi meeting has had a favorable effect on cross-strait relations, “not by strengthening the impact of Ma’s already-conciliatory policies of the past seven years, but by helping to limit their expected erosion when he leaves the stage.” [FULL STORY]

Ma defends summit with Xi

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-11-13
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – President Ma Ying-jeou on Friday defended his handling of the

Ma defends summit with Xi amid criticism. Central News Agency (2015-11-13 21:16:52)

November 7 summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping against allegations he had failed to stand up for Taiwan’s interests.

His unexpected news conference came as it grew increasingly unlikely that the Legislative Yuan would invite him to present a report about the topic. The Democratic Progressive Party has opposed the idea, while it accused Ma of having used too much secrecy in preparing the summit and of doing a poor job of defending Taiwan.

The president told the Friday news conference that during his talks with Xi, he had both mentioned Taiwan’s official name, the Republic of China, and the complete phrasing of the “1992 Consensus” formula, “One China, Each His Own Interpretation.” Chinese officials usually never mention the second part of the phrase, underlining statements by the DPP and former President Lee Teng-hui that the consensus does not exist. [FULL STORY]

Regular meets between Taipei-Beijing leaders would help peace: poll

Focus Taiwan
Date: 2015/11/13
By: Chen Chia-lun and Kuo Chung-han

Taipei, Nov. 13 (CNA) Nearly two-thirds of respondents to a recent poll said the institutionalization of summit meetings between the presidents of Taiwan and China would help the peaceful and stable development of cross-Taiwan Strait relations.

Some 65.9 percent of those polled thought regular meetings would contribute to peace while 23.3 percent did not, according to poll results released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Friday.

National Chengchi University’s Election Study Center was commissioned to conduct the survey of people aged 20 or over across the country from Nov. 8 to 11 on President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping (習近平) on Nov. 7.

The poll found that 61.6 percent of respondents supported the principles of equality and transparency shown in the Ma-Xi meeting in Singapore and 26.1 percent did not. [FULL STORY]

Ma speaks out on Xi summit after snub

‘NOT FOISTED’:The president said the ‘1992 consensus’ was not forced on Taiwan by China, while denying the meeting had forced a ‘framework’ upon future leaders

Taipei Times
Date: Nov 14, 2015
By: Alison Hsiao / Staff reporter

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) called an international press conference yesterday to

President Ma Ying-jeou at a press conference in Taipei yesterday speaks about his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Singapore on Saturday last week. Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times

reaffirm what he said was the importance of the so-called “1992 consensus” in maintaining cross-strait peace, after the opposition parties denied him the chance to report to the legislature on his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).

The president reiterated at the press conference that the meeting was a success because it built a bridge between the two sides and provides a model for future interaction.

“The meeting has also received wide coverage in the foreign media; as of today there were nearly 1,000 pieces of foreign reporting on the meeting,” Ma said.

The world in general has voiced its praise over the meeting, Ma said.

“Indonesia, for example, even offered to host the next cross-strait leaders’ meeting,” he said. [FULL STORY]

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