Former president Lee Teng-hui (
Addressing the campaign's inauguration ceremony, Lee, the general convener of the action, yesterday said this was an important moment for the people of Taiwan to begin building a real independent and sovereign country, which will be necessitated by the creation of Taiwan's own constitution.
"The new Taiwan constitution will ensure that Taiwan will become a normal country. This new constitution will deal with whether the country should adopt a three-branch governmental system and will define the relations between the administrative and legislative departments and ensure the impartiality of the judicial system. But above all, Taiwan's national status must be defined clearly; that is, Taiwan is Taiwan, and not a part of China," Lee said.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
Lee yesterday signed a statement with other campaign co-conveners, witnessed by hund-reds of supporters in Taipei's Grand Hotel.
The statement reads that "the new constitution must not contain the name of Republic of China," excluding any elements that may lead to confusion with China.
"The new constitution must contain articles that are consistent with the sovereign state of Taiwan and the principles of international law. The people of Taiwan will decide the name of the state."
Lee said that the new constitution must protect Taiwan's sovereignty, while refraining from inf-ringing on the sovereignty of other countries. He said that the ROC Constitution violates international law because it includes the territories of the People's Republic of China and Mongolia.
Furthermore, Lee said that the ROC Constitution is not fit for use in Taiwan, as it was not made by the Taiwanese people; rather, it was designed for all Chinese people in 1946 and was promulgated in 1947.
The group's statement states that "In 1949, the Nationalist Government [also known as the Chinese Nationalist Party] retreated to Taiwan and began to implement a system of martial law and provisional articles for the period of Communist rebellion, under which the ROC Constitution was, in reality, nothing but dead."
Advocating that "Taiwan" be used as the name for the country in the new constitution, Lee said this effort can be traced back to 1999, when he proposed the "special state-to-state relations" theory to insist that Taiwan is an independent and sovereign country. He also proposed similar concepts, such as "ROC in Taiwan" and "Taiwan ROC" in an effort to erase ROC as a symbol of Taiwan.
Lee cited UN Resolution 2758, adopted on Oct. 25, 1971, saying it clearly affirms that the ROC does not exist in the international community and therefore the name ROC is fictitious and must be abolished so as to protect the national status of Taiwan.
Prominent politicians who attended yesterday's inauguration ceremony included co-convener Ng Chiau-tong (黃昭堂), chairman of World United Formosans for Independence, Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文), Examination Yuan President and former Democratic Progressive Party chairman, and constitutional expert Lee Hung-hsi (李鴻禧).
Lee Hung-hsi, one of President Chen Shui-bian's (
"Chen is a pragmatic person. He knows that by amending the constitution, he could plead for the support of the opposition parties in a more humble way. His promise to give the people a new constitution by 2008 is the same as Lee's. It's just because he is the president and has to be careful about international pressure and the opinions of opposition leaders that he has to be a bit diplomatic in his [words]," Lee Hung-hsi said.
However, a prominent KMT figure, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), yesterday said there would be little room for creating a new constitution since Chen has already declared he only wanted to amend the existing Constitution, and the pan-blue camp also would only support an amendment in the new legislature after the December legislative elections.
PROVOCATIVE: Chinese Deputy Ambassador to the UN Sun Lei accused Japan of sending military vessels to deliberately provoke tensions in the Taiwan Strait China denounced remarks by Japan and the EU about the South China Sea at a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, and accused Tokyo of provocative behavior in the Taiwan Strait and planning military expansion. Ayano Kunimitsu, a Japanese vice foreign minister, told the Council meeting on maritime security that Tokyo was seriously concerned about the situation in the East China and South China seas, and reiterated Japan’s opposition to any attempt to change the “status quo” by force, and obstruction of freedom of navigation and overflight. Stavros Lambrinidis, head of the EU delegation to the UN, also highlighted South China Sea
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
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said it expects its 2-nanometer (2nm) chip capacity to grow at a compound annual rate of 70 percent from this year to 2028. The projection comes as five fabs begin volume production of 2-nanometer chips this year — two in Hsinchu and three in Kaohsiung — TSMC senior vice president and deputy cochief operating officer Cliff Hou (侯永清) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Silicon Valley, California, last week. Output in the first year of 2-nanometer production, which began in the fourth quarter of last year, is expected to
Taiwan’s drone exports surged past US$100 million in the first quarter, exceeding last year’s full-year total, with the Czech Republic emerging as the largest buyer, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said. Exports of complete drones reached US$115.85 million in the period, about 1.2 times the total recorded for all of last year, the ministry said in a report. Exports to the Czech Republic accounted for about US$100 million, far outpacing other markets. Poland, last year’s top destination, recorded about US$11.75 million in the first quarter. Taiwan’s drone exports have expanded rapidly in the past few years, with last year’s total
RSS