The DPP yesterday sought to downplay President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) call on Saturday for a referendum on the nation's future, saying that Chen's comments had been "over-interpreted" by the media.
"The referendum would be to defend the current status of Taiwan, not to change its current status. Unfortunately, [Chen's comments] were widely misinterpreted as calling for a change to the current status," DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (張俊雄) said at a press conference yesterday evening.
Chen told a Tokyo meeting of the World Federation of Taiwanese Associations via satellite video broadcast that there is "one country on either side" (of the Taiwan Strait) and that the nation should seriously consider passing referendum legislation so that a vote on Taiwan's future could be held.
PHOTO: GEORGE TSORNG, TAIPEI TIMES
DPP legislative whip Wang Tuoh (
"Many international media organizations interpreted President Chen's remarks as heading toward a path of independence, but I think they were over-interpreted," he said.
Chen's comments were widely considered his toughest to date on cross-strait affairs.
As to the issue of referendum legislation, Wang cautioned that the matter is highly contentious.
"Referendum legislation is a controversial issue between political parties and its implementation might lead to the unsteadiness of Taiwan's politics. I would remind my colleagues of the risks we would be undertaking if they propose the idea to the Legislative Yuan," Wang said.
Executive Director of the DPP's Policy Research and Coordinating Committee Lin Cho-shui (
"Beijing has said that it would separate economic issues from political ones and that it would attempt to discuss insensitive issues before sensitive ones. But it hasn't done anything to implement such ideas over the past two years," Lin said.
"After Beijing's series of provocative actions, it's about time for us to be tough on Beijing. We have to make Beijing understand reality clearly and not to have any unpractical expectations of Taiwan," he said.
Some academics, however, worried Chen might have gone too far this time.
"President Chen created a lot of space for cross-strait relations with his `five no's' policy. The new remarks, however, show his bottom line. What else can Chen say to scare Beijing next time?" said Wu Yu-shan (
CHAMPIONS: President Lai congratulated the players’ outstanding performance, cheering them for marking a new milestone in the nation’s baseball history Taiwan on Sunday won their first Little League Baseball World Series (LLBWS) title in 29 years, as Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School defeated a team from Las Vegas 7-0 in the championship game in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was Taiwan’s first championship in the annual tournament since 1996, ending a nearly three-decade drought. “It has been a very long time ... and we finally made it,” Taiwan manager Lai Min-nan (賴敏男) said after the game. Lai said he last managed a Dong Yuan team in at the South Williamsport in 2015, when they were eliminated after four games. “There is
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers have declared they survived recall votes to remove them from office today, although official results are still pending as the vote counting continues. Although final tallies from the Central Election Commission (CEC) are still pending, preliminary results indicate that the recall campaigns against all seven KMT lawmakers have fallen short. As of 6:10 pm, Taichung Legislators Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) and Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔), Hsinchu County Legislator Lin Szu-ming (林思銘), Nantou County Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) and New Taipei City Legislator Lo Ming-tsai (羅明才) had all announced they
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) yesterday visited Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), as the chipmaker prepares for volume production of Nvidia’s next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) chips. It was Huang’s third trip to Taiwan this year, indicating that Nvidia’s supply chain is deeply connected to Taiwan. Its partners also include packager Siliconware Precision Industries Co (矽品精密) and server makers Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Quanta Computer Inc (廣達). “My main purpose is to visit TSMC,” Huang said yesterday. “As you know, we have next-generation architecture called Rubin. Rubin is very advanced. We have now taped out six brand new
POWER PLANT POLL: The TPP said the number of ‘yes’ votes showed that the energy policy should be corrected, and the KMT said the result was a win for the people’s voice The government does not rule out advanced nuclear energy generation if it meets the government’s three prerequisites, President William Lai (賴清德) said last night after the number of votes in favor of restarting a nuclear power plant outnumbered the “no” votes in a referendum yesterday. The referendum failed to pass, despite getting more “yes” votes, as the Referendum Act (公民投票法) states that the vote would only pass if the votes in favor account for more than one-fourth of the total number of eligible voters and outnumber the opposing votes. Yesterday’s referendum question was: “Do you agree that the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant