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EU group backs Taiwan, slams Xi
The European Parliament-Taiwan Friendship Group called the “one country, two systems” formula proposed for Taiwan by Chinese President Xi Jinping a failure yesterday in a letter authored to Federica Mogherini, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security.
The letter expressed grave concern over Xi’s Jan. 2 speech calling for unification with Taiwan, saying it posed a danger to regional peace, according to the Taipei Representative Office in the EU and Belgium.
The letter was signed by group chairman Werner Langen, vice chairman Andrey Kovatchev and former vice chairs Hans van Baalen and Laima Andrikiene. All four are current EU parliamentarians.
Credit: Reuters / TPG
It comes amid a wave of international support for Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文)’s rebuke of Xi’s “one country, two systems” offer and her refusal to recognize the so-called “1992 Consensus.”
Tsai proposed a “four musts” framework for improved cross-Strait relations in a Jan. 1 speech and has declined to entertain the model pitched by Xi, who said he refuses to rule out using force to unify Taiwan and China.
SF Express criticized over alleged delivery refusal
Hong Kong-based journalist and critic Leung Man-tao (梁文道) said in a Sunday Apple Daily column that delivery service SF Express Taiwan refused to send three books to Hong Kong from Taipei due to “recent content restrictions placed by China on articles and books.”
Leung said he traveled to Taipei last week and asked his hotel’s concierge to have three books he purchased sent to him in Hong Kong. He said the hotel staff told him SF Express had decided not to send the books and the decision had nothing to do with the hotel.
SF Express, which is headquartered in China, declined to comment on whether they handled Leung’s case and said they abide by each country’s customs requirements, according to CNA.
The books were “Out of China: How the Chinese Ended the Era of Western Domination” by Robert Bickers, “The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine and the Birth of Right and Left” by Yuval Levin, and an issue of Intellectual History, a Taiwanese academic journal.
The publication of Leung’s own work was reportedly banned in China in 2014 due to its support for Hong Kong’s Occupy Central movement and for democracy and human rights, according to a 2014 article in the Taipei Times.
DPP’s Luo wants to restore party’s ‘brand image’
Democratic Progressive Party secretary-general Luo Wen-chia (羅文嘉) said Monday the party would work to improve its communication with the public in an effort to fix the party’s “brand image.”
Luo, speaking to reporters at Buffalo Books, a Taipei cafe he managed for the past seven years, vowed to discover why the DPP has lost support over the past two years by modernizing the party’s surveys. Luo said he would use scientific and rational analysis, “including opinion polls, market analytics and academic research” to find out why the DPP’s support has slipped.
Incoming DPP chairman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) announced Luo’s appointment on Sunday.
Cho, along with members of the Cabinet of new Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), have vowed to improve the party’s communication after its crushing Nov. 24, 2018 regional election defeats.
Luo said his task was to find problems with the DPP’s current image and prescribe solutions before “the product goes up for sale next year,” when President Tsai and DPP legislators will be up for re-election.
Other news:
- Taiwan’s state-sponsored Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), a high-tech applied research institution, is banning Huawei users from accessing ITRI’s internal network starting from Tuesday at noon. (CNA)
- The Hsinchu District Prosecutors Office is charging four former employees of Hsinchu’s Novatek Microelectronics Corp. with leaking trade secrets to a Chinese firm. (CNA)
- Bad news for KFC fans: Prices of KFC products in Taiwan are set to rise by five percent on average tomorrow, the fried chicken chain said in a statement. (KFC)
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Editor: Nick Aspinwall (@Nick1Aspinwall)
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