The Presidential Office remains cautious about the US government's reaction to Taiwan's referendum plan, in the aftermath of President Chen Shui-bian (
"We believe that the March 20 referendum plan will no longer be a problem between the two countries, and we hope the US understands Chen's commitment," said a source from the Presidential Office.
He said Chen pledged to draft a new constitution and carry out his policies without changing the status quo, and the wording is more serious than the "five noes" Chen proposed in his inauguration speech in 2000.
During a pre-recorded TV speech broadcast on Friday night, Chen announced the content of his "peace referendum" plan and assured the international community that he would fully abide by maintaining the status quo in Taiwan.
"If I assume this office as the 11th president of the Republic of China, I will continue to strive to the fullest of my abilities to maintain the status quo and ensure the sovereignty, dignity and security of our country," Chen said.
"On the basis of maintaining the status quo, I will continue the proposed re-engineering of our Constitution," he said.
A senior official at the Presidential Office told the Taipei Times that, so far, the US has merely reiterated its goodwill toward Taiwan.
He said that Taipei understands that Washington would not remark on Taiwan's referendum development before this weekend, so the Presidential Office could not comment on the issue or evaluate possible developments in the relationship between the US and Taiwan.
"Presently, any interpretation or over-optimism would be inappropriate, and these are basic manners with which to treat a friend," said the official, who was involved in the decision-making.
He disclosed that there were only a few presidential aides involved in the decision-making process when the wording of the two topics was finalized last week.
He said the presidential campaign team announced the topics before the Lunar New Year holiday so as to avoid a lingering atmosphere of "uncertainty" throughout the nation, which may affect the DPP's campaign activities.
"We originally planned to announce it at the opening ceremony of the DPP presidential campaign headquarters Saturday morning. But since it is `Taiwan's leader' that [US] President [George W.] Bush referred to, we wanted Chen to make this announcement as the nation's leader, rather than a presidential candidate," he said.
According to the official, an English translation of Chen's speech was given to the US government an hour before the broadcast.
As soon as the referendum topics were announced, US Secretary of State Colin Powell and a White House spokesman responded positively, but Presidential Office Secretary General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) has remained low-key and reiterating that the office needed to be cautious about the US' remarks.
Meanwhile, in an interview on Formosa Television yesterday evening, President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen said he did add such a comment to the speech, which showed his sincerity and effort in handling cross-strait relations.
Chen also said that the call for referendum was made under a framework of peace and security -- aimed at avoiding war and freeing the people of Taiwan from fear of the threat of missiles.
It [the referendum question] is not [aimed at] an arms race but to ensure the people's security," Chen said. "This is our way of protecting ourselves. We can only negotiate with China in a state of confidence and security."
"A referendum is a chip that Taiwan, as a sovereign state, has to possess. It cannot be replaced by any poll or other legislative organizations," he said.
additional reporting by Jewel Huang
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
FIRST TRIAL: Ko’s lawyers sought reduced bail and other concessions, as did other defendants, but the bail judge denied their requests, citing the severity of the sentences Former Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) was yesterday sentenced to 17 years in prison and had his civil rights suspended for six years over corruption, embezzlement and other charges. Taipei prosecutors in December last year asked the Taipei District Court for a combined 28-year, six-month sentence for the four cases against Ko, who founded the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The cases were linked to the Core Pacific City (京華城購物中心) redevelopment project and the mismanagement of political donations. Other defendants convicted on separate charges included Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Taipei City Councilor Angela Ying (應曉薇), who was handed a 15-year, six-month sentence; Core Pacific
J-6 REMODEL: The converted drones are part of Beijing’s expanding mix of airpower weapons, including bombers with stand-off missiles and UAV swarms, the report said China has stationed obsolete supersonic fighters converted to attack drones at six air bases close to the Taiwan Strait, a report published this month by the Arlington, Virginia-based Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies said. Satellite imagery of the airfields from the institute’s “China Airpower Tracker” shows what appear to be lines of stubby, swept-winged aircraft matching the shape of J-6 fighters that first flew with the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in the 1960s. Since their conversion to drones, the aircraft have been identified at five bases in China’s Fujian Province and one in Guangdong Province, the report said. J.
China used fake LinkedIn profiles to harvest sensitive data from NATO and EU institutions by soliciting information from staff, a European security source said on Friday. The operation, allegedly orchestrated by the Chinese Ministry of State Security, targeted dozens of employees at the military alliance or EU organizations through fictitious accounts, the source said, confirming reports in French and Belgian media. Posing as recruiters on the online professional networking platform, Chinese spies would initially request paid reports before later soliciting non-public or even classified information. One particularly active fake profile used the name “Kevin Zhang,” claiming to be the head
RSS