President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen once again vowed to change the names of government agencies overseas and state-run enterprises during a campaign activity held in Taipei City yesterday.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
"We don't have to fear China's opposition to Taiwan's reforms and changes," Chen said after praying for DPP candidates at Baoan Temple (
"In fact, China has never stopped threatening Taiwan while we conducted democratic reforms over the past few decades."
Chen said that, from the lifting of martial law and bans on establishing political parties and newspapers, to elections for the legislature and direct elections for president, China has never voiced its consent to Taiwan's changes.
"But we would never give up our transformation just because of China's intimidation," Chen said.
Meanwhile, Chen rebutted some people's argument that the state-run corporations will not make profits anymore if those businesses quit using "China" or "Chinese" in their titles, criticizing these comments as "nonsense."
"Did Wang Yung-ching's (
"Why can't we change our name?" Chen asked, pointing out that Taiwan had already successfully changed the bizarre names of Taiwan's resident office in Washington from "Coordination Council for North American Affairs" to "Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US."
The Association of East Asian Relations, the representative office in Japan, was also changed to the "Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office."
By citing a statement that Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
He emphasized that the case is the same as when Ma needed a majority in the Taipei City Council for a better administration.
Chen stressed that only when the pan-green camp wins the legislative elections could Ma have a chance to extend his political future, otherwise Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
"Just as Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou appealed to Taipei citizens as he sought for his mayoral reelection in 2002, which Ma said that since voters supported his re-election, they should also promise him a stable city council for the sake of better municipal construction," Chen said.
"So did I. I asked all of you to vote for the pan-green camps so that I could have the back-up of the legislature to continue implementing all kinds of reform," Chen said.
Also see stories:
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS