President Chen Shui-bian (
Two months after he first floated the idea of a new constitution at the 17th anniversary of his Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Chen made clear that he regarded amending the current Constitution, which has already undergone six sets of amendments, as a waste of time and that a new constitution should be created and put before the public in a referendum on Dec. 10, 2006, which is also International Human Rights Day.
Chen made the statements yesterday while receiving a group of American academics invited to participate in today's international conference on Democracy, Nationalism and Security in the Asia Pacific jointly sponsored by Taiwan's Institute for National Policy Research and The Brookings Institution in the US.
The American academics attending yesterday's reception at the Presidential Office included John Thornton, chairman of the Executive Committee of the Brookings Institution; Richard Bush, former chairman of the American Institute in Taiwan; Strobe Talbott, former US deputy secretary of state; and James Steinberg, former deputy national security adviser.
Chen told his visitors that the current Constitution, which was promulgated in 1946 and put into effect in 1947, does not suit the needs of the 23 million Taiwanese people.
"Almost two-thirds of the articles of the ROC Constitution need to be amended, including the complete rewriting of nearly half of these articles. Such an undertaking is beyond the range of simply rewriting, it requires a complete construction of a new constitution," he said.
"The previous six sets of constitutional amendments were fragmentary and many problems remained unresolved. The construction of the new constitution is aimed to thoroughly solve the remaining problems once and for all, as the Taiwanese people will have to decide the content of the new constitution through a referendum in 2006," Chen said.
He said that if the new constitution is approved in December 2006, it would be enacted on May 20, 2008, the inauguration day for the winner of that year's presidential election.
Chen said that his characterization of Taiwan and China being "one country on each side" of the Taiwan Strait, the promotion of national referendums and the new constitution were all part of the nation's democratization process and would not contradict the "five noes" pledge he made in his inauguration speech in 2000. Therefore, he said, these issues could not be regarded as part of the dispute over Taiwan's independence or unification with China.
The president also said that as the US is one of Taiwan's most important allies, his promotion of these democratic ideals and constitutional reforms would not affect or undermine US interests.
Taiwan's top representative to the US, Chen Chien-jen (
He added that although the US government was concerned about referendums to decide Taiwan's independence or unification, Chen's "five noes" promise was accepted by the US government.
Meanwhile, the DPP continued the process of nominating Chen to be the party's candidate in next year's presidential election.
At the DPP's Central Executive Committee meeting yesterday, Chen received unanimous support from the DPP headquarters for his candidacy.
Chen is expected to be officially nominated by the committee on Dec. 10. He will announce his running mate on Dec. 13 during the DPP's annual national congress.
LEVERAGE: China did not ‘need to fire a shot’ to deny Taiwan airspace over Africa when it owns ‘half the continent’s debt,’ a US official said, calling it economic warfare The EU has raised concerns about overflight rights following the delay of President William Lai’s (賴清德) planned state visit to the Kingdom of Eswatini after three African nations denied overflight clearance for his charter at the last minute. Taiwanese allies Paraguay and Saint Kitts and Nevis, as well as several US lawmakers and the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) condemned China for allegedly pressuring the countries. Lai was scheduled to fly directly to Taiwan’s only African ally from yesterday to Sunday to celebrate the 40th anniversary of King Mswati III’s accession and his 58th birthday, but Seychelles, Mauritius and Madagascar suddenly revoked
The final batch of 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks purchased from the US arrived at Taipei Port last night and were transported to the Armor Training Command in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), completing the military’s multi-year procurement of 108 of the tanks. Starting at 12:10am today, reporters observed more than a dozen civilian flatbed trailers departing from Taipei Port, each carrying an M1A2T tank covered with black waterproof tarps. Escorted by military vehicles, the convoy traveled via the West Coast Expressway to the Armor Training Command, with police implementing traffic control. The army operates about 1,000 tanks, including CM-11 Brave Tiger
China on Wednesday teased in a video an aircraft carrier that could be its fourth, and the first using nuclear power, while making an allusion to Taiwan and vowing to further build up its islands, as it looks to boost maritime power, secure resources and bolster territorial claims. The video, issued on the eve of the 77th founding anniversary of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy, featured fictional officers with names that are homophones of three commissioned aircraft carriers, the Liaoning (遼寧), Shandong (山東) and Fujian (福建). Titled Into the Deep, it showed a 19-year-old named “Hejian” (何劍) joining the group, sparking
BIG YEAR: The company said it would also release its A12 chip the same year to keep a ‘reliable stream of new silicon technologies’ flowing to its customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said its newest A13 chip is to enter volume production in 2029 as the chipmaker seeks to hold onto its tech leadership and demand for next-generation chips used in artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance-computing (HPC) and mobile applications. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, also unveiled its A12 chip at its annual technology symposium in Santa Clara, California. The A12 chip, which features TSMC’s super-power-rail technology to provide backside power delivery for AI and HPC applications, is also to enter volume production in 2029, a year after the scheduled release of the A14 chip. The technology moves
RSS