Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators yesterday blasted the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) in another case of the government distributing calendars listing national holidays in China as among those observed in Taiwan, calling these incidents a product of its China-leaning policies and agenda to promote unification.
“From top to bottom, government [officials and workers] under President Ma are not clear about the nation's sovereignty and status,” DPP Legislator Chen Chi-yu (陳啟昱) told a press conference yesterday.
Given the government's confusing stance on sovereignty, “it's no wonder so many people [in government] are in the habit of taking actions that they think would please their superiors,” DPP Legislator Chen Chi-yu (陳啟昱) told a press conference yesterday.
Chen made the remarks in light of the latest incident in which 5,000 calendars distributed to the public by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' (MOFA) Eastern Taiwan Office in Hualien were found to contain three extra holidays — July 1, Oct. 1 and Dec. 26.
None of those dates are holidays in Taiwan, but they are celebrated in Hong Kong as the founding anniversary of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the National Day of the People's Republic of China and the birthday of Mao Zedong (毛澤東) respectively.
Taiwan celebrates its national day on Oct. 10.
Chen said the ministry should be particularly sensitive to details like these, yet they have slipped through as though it regards China as the motherland.
DPP Legislator Hsueh Ling (薛凌) said this was the third case in which calendars distributed by government agencies carried inappropriate national holidays, adding that it was “an indication that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government is preparing to unite with China.”
The first incident took place last October when calendars for this year that were distributed by the KMT-dominated Taoyuan County Council marked Oct. 1 as National Day and July 1 as Reunification Day.
Hsueh said that a set of free calendars produced by Taitung County Government's Department of Health last month were found to carry China's five-star national flag — not the Republic of China's (ROC) national flag — on the cover and listed Oct. 1 as National Day.
In both cases, local governments attributed the mistakes to negligence on the part of the printing companies.
“Why all these mistakes?” Hsueh asked, adding that these “seeming mistakes” were all part of the government's maneuverings. She did not elaborate.
At a separate setting yesterday, MOFA spokesman Henry Chen (陳銘政) said the blunder was unintentional.
The error was not detected during pre-publication proofreading because the sample calendar submitted by the publishing house was printed in black and white, while the finished product appeared in color, he said.
The publisher has apologized for the error and will publish a new version, he said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY JENNY W. HSU AND CNA
President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday criticized the nuclear energy referendum scheduled for Saturday next week, saying that holding the plebiscite before the government can conduct safety evaluations is a denial of the public’s right to make informed decisions. Lai, who is also the chairman of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), made the comments at the party’s Central Standing Committee meeting at its headquarters in Taipei. ‘NO’ “I will go to the ballot box on Saturday next week to cast a ‘no’ vote, as we all should do,” he said as he called on the public to reject the proposition to reactivate the decommissioned
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) quoted the Taiwanese song One Small Umbrella (一支小雨傘) to describe his nation’s situation. Wong’s use of such a song shows Singapore’s familiarity with Taiwan’s culture and is a perfect reflection of exchanges between the two nations, Representative to Singapore Tung Chen-yuan (童振源) said yesterday in a post on Facebook. Wong quoted the song, saying: “As the rain gets heavier, I will take care of you, and you,” in Mandarin, using it as a metaphor for Singaporeans coming together to face challenges. Other Singaporean politicians have also used Taiwanese songs
US President Donald Trump on Friday said that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) told him China would not invade Taiwan while Trump is in office. Trump made the remarks in an interview with Fox News, ahead of talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. “I will tell you, you know, you have a very similar thing with President Xi of China and Taiwan, but I don’t believe there’s any way it’s going to happen as long as I’m here. We’ll see,” Trump said during an interview on Fox News’ Special Report. “He told me: ‘I will never do
CLAMPING DOWN: At the preliminary stage on Jan. 1 next year, only core personnel of the military, the civil service and public schools would be subject to inspections Regular checks are to be conducted from next year to clamp down on military personnel, civil servants and public-school teachers with Chinese citizenship or Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. Article 9-1 of the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) stipulates that Taiwanese who obtain Chinese household registration or a Chinese passport would be deprived of their Taiwanese citizenship and lose their right to work in the military, public service or public schools, it said. To identify and prevent the illegal employment of holders of Chinese ID cards or
RSS