Room for improvement in HK-Taiwan ties, envoy says
Relations between Hong Kong and Taiwan could improve if both sides communicated on the basis of understanding and trust, the island's de facto envoy said yesterday.
Speaking at a reception to celebrate the Double Tenth, Chang Liang-jen, managing director of the Chung Hwa Travel Service, said room existed for an improvement in relations.
'Although 3.5 million people travel between Taiwan and Hong Kong [every year], there is room for improving mutual understanding and co-operation. Communication should be based on mutual understanding, trust and benefit, and co-operation should be frank, careful and patient,' Mr Chang said.
Earlier, more than 200 guests gathered at the Castle Peak Red House in Tuen Mun, the revolutionary base of Sun Yat-sen, singing nationalist songs.
In the evening, hundreds of guests - including Taiwanese legislators and Hong Kong social and political leaders - attended a reception at the Conrad International Hotel in Admiralty.
Taiwan's cultural envoy, Lu Ping, who was only permitted to come to Hong Kong in January following an 11-month wait, celebrated the anniversary in the city for the first time. Last year's Double Tenth celebration was clouded by uncertainty, with many Taiwanese worried that such activities would not be allowed under the proposed national security bill.
Legislator Lau Chin-shek, of the Confederation of Trade Unions, said he believed turnout at Double Tenth events in Hong Kong this year had been lower than in previous years.
'Relations between Hong Kong and Taiwan are important and we should value our special role in bridging the Taiwan Strait,' he said.
Some analysts say relations have deteriorated since Secretary for Constitutional Affairs Stephen Lam Sui-lung took over the Taiwan affairs portfolio last year from Paul Yip Kwok-wah, special adviser to Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa.
