President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) campaign office yesterday crossed swords with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson and presidential nominee Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) over the latter’s latest campaign slogan: “I am a Taiwanese (我是台灣人),” which follows two earlier slogans — “Taiwan NEXT” and “Taiwan, what do you want?”
Tsai said in a speech in Nantou County yesterday that if elected, she will “ensure people feel proud about being Taiwanese.”
Tsai said that the willingness to identify oneself as Taiwanese in public, with pride, is a symbol of Taiwan’s democratic values and social progress.
“When we are overseas, we should be able to say: ‘I am Taiwanese’ out loud,” Tsai said, adding that if the DPP regains power next year, she will devote more resources to enhancing Taiwan’s recognition in the international community.
At a campaign event in New Taipei City (新北市) on Friday, Tsai accused the Ma administration of undermining the nation’s sovereignty and identity, and said that the government “made it difficult for people in Taiwan to be Taiwanese.”
“It also seems that President Ma finds it difficult to say the word ‘Taiwanese’ out loud,” she said.
In response, Ma’s campaign office yesterday accused Tsai of seeking to make ethnicity a campaign issue and urged the DPP to abandon what it called “an old election tactic.”
Ma’s campaign office spokesman Yin Wei (殷瑋) accused Tsai of resorting to “Taiwanese rhetoric,” a tactic that he said had been a favorite of the DPP since the campaigns of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and one that would be rejected by the public.
“People who grow up and live in Taiwan, regardless of their political affiliations, are all Taiwanese, and being Taiwanese is a natural thing. Which part of being Taiwanese is so difficult?” he said.
Taiwanese identity is not the property of the DPP, Yin said. It is a social reality shared by people in Taiwan, he added
On Tsai’s promise to gain more respect for Taiwan as a member of the international community and raise Taiwanese people’s sense of dignity, Yin defended Ma’s efforts to safeguard the nation’s dignity and the sovereignty of the Republic of China on the international stage by citing the nation’s participation in the WHO and the increasing number of countries granting Taiwanese visa-waiver status.
Compared with the Ma administration’s achievements in raising the nation’s international profile, he said Tsai, a former vice premier, participated in six WHO-related activities under the name “Taiwan, China,” Yin said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
RESPONSE: The transit sends a message that China’s alignment with other countries would not deter the West from defending freedom of navigation, an academic said Canadian frigate the Ville de Quebec and Australian guided-missile destroyer the Brisbane transited the Taiwan Strait yesterday morning, the first time the two nations have conducted a joint freedom of navigation operation. The Canadian and Australian militaries did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of National Defense declined to confirm the passage, saying only that Taiwan’s armed forces had deployed surveillance and reconnaissance assets, along with warships and combat aircraft, to safeguard security across the Strait. The two vessels were observed transiting northward along the eastern side of the Taiwan Strait’s median line, with Japan being their most likely destination,
‘NOT ALONE’: A Taiwan Strait war would disrupt global trade routes, and could spark a worldwide crisis, so a powerful US presence is needed as a deterrence, a US senator said US Senator Deb Fischer on Thursday urged her colleagues in the US Congress to deepen Washington’s cooperation with Taiwan and other Indo-Pacific partners to contain the global security threat from China. Fischer and other lawmakers recently returned from an official trip to the Indo-Pacific region, where they toured US military bases in Hawaii and Guam, and visited leaders, including President William Lai (賴清德). The trip underscored the reality that the world is undergoing turmoil, and maintaining a free and open Indo-Pacific region is crucial to the security interests of the US and its partners, she said. Her visit to Taiwan demonstrated ways the
GLOBAL ISSUE: If China annexes Taiwan, ‘it will not stop its expansion there, as it only becomes stronger and has more force to expand further,’ the president said China’s military and diplomatic expansion is not a sole issue for Taiwan, but one that risks world peace, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, adding that Taiwan would stand with the alliance of democratic countries to preserve peace through deterrence. Lai made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). “China is strategically pushing forward to change the international order,” Lai said, adding that China established the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank, launched the Belt and Road Initiative, and pushed for yuan internationalization, because it wants to replace the democratic rules-based international
WAR’S END ANNIVERSARY: ‘Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,’ the president said on social media after attending a morning ceremony Countries should uphold peace, and promote freedom and democracy, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday as Taiwan marked 80 years since the end of World War II and the Second Sino-Japanese War. Lai, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and other top officials in the morning attended a ceremony at the National Revolutionary Martyrs’ Shrine in Taipei’s Zhongshan District (中山) to honor those who sacrificed their lives in major battles. “Taiwanese are peace-loving. Taiwan does not believe in commemorating peace by holding guns,” Lai wrote on Facebook afterward, apparently to highlight the contrast with the military parade in Beijing marking the same anniversary. “We
RSS