Vice President Annette Lu (
Lu said that members of the KMT just could never accept the fact that they lost the presidential election and therefore were trying to steal back power.
"The decision to halt the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant is the right decision. It is a decision of honesty and conscience for the next generation. What is wrong with that?" Lu said during a speech to high school students yesterday morning.
Some 2000 senior high school students applauded as Lu raised her voice to severely criticize the opposition parties.
"Do the [opposition parties] intend to recall the president and myself just because the government has halted the nuclear power plant?" Lu asked.
"The motive behind this," she said, "is that they [the opposition parties] have enjoyed the privilege of manipulating power over the past 55 years and they are still unhappy about losing this privilege."
Lu, visibly angry, strongly defended President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and the DPP government, asserting that she had never given in to threats from the opposition parties.
Lu accused the KMT of attempting to pin the blame for five decades of its own mismanagement on a new government that has only been in power for five months.
"There are 6 billion people in the world but only 100 million are willing to recognize Taiwan -- that is really a shame," Lu said.
"But what I want to ask is, `how can that be the new government's fault?'" Lu said, adding, "Shouldn't [former vice president and premier] KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
Lu also said that if Lien and Soong really loved Taiwan, "how could they have ruined the country's finances and left huge mountain of debt for the new government to deal with?"
"They navigated this ship [Taiwan] into troubled waters, and now they just want to steal the helmsman's position from us," Lu said.
Lu ended her speech saying that she will safeguard justice and "not compromise."
Responding to Lu's remarks, Soong lashed out at Lu for failing to handle the government smoothly and highlighted the fact that different departments within the new government remained at odds over policy.
"Who really loves Taiwan? I remember that Lu once accused me during the presidential election campaign of `betraying Taiwan.' But now the president is going to carry out something that I campaigned for -- direct links with China," Soong said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2