In her New Year speech yesterday, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said her wish was to win the Jan. 14 presidential election and promised to turn Taiwan into a country where solidarity and justice prevail.
“My fellow countrymen, I wish you a happy new year on the first day of 2012. I would also like to take this opportunity to offer my sincere pledge to make Taiwan a country of solidarity and justice,” she said at a flag-raising ceremony in Greater Tainan.
A collective upward dynamic and cohesiveness are desperately needed in Taiwan as people have lost their hope for the future and their trust in any political promise in the past three-and-a-half years, during which the government has malfunctioned, she said.
Photo: CNA
That is why she is determined to win the presidential election so her administration would be able to strive to regain “a sense of direction, the strength to march forward and people’s trust in politics,” Tsai said.
“That is the responsibility of our generation. And every one of you will be able to play a crucial part in the change for the better,” Tsai said.
With the presidential race moving into the final two weeks before the election, Tsai has been trying to consolidate support for her candidacy with extensive visits to various parts of the nation.
Meanwhile, at a press conference yesterday, former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), who serves as Tsai’s campaign chairman and ran as vice presidential candidate in the DPP’s failed bid in the 2008 presidential election, submitted the “three urges of respect.”
These are a call on Beijing to respect Taiwan, on the government to respect the people and on voters to respect their own free will.
The presidential election is the highest form of demonstrating the people’s collective will, Su said in Taipei, and China should refrain from any interference in the democratic process or threaten use of force against Taiwan.
In the lead-up to the election, Beijing officials have issued a number of official comments that made no secret of their support for President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) re-election bid and have threatened that the stability of cross-strait relations could be undermined if the DPP were to re-enter the Presidential Office.
The government should respect its people by maintaining administrative neutrality and preventing the use of vote-buying, Su said.
Su also urged voters to respect their right to vote and say “no” to vote-buying to enable Taiwan’s democracy to deepen.
A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Yilan at 11:05pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter was located at sea, about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km, CWA data showed There were no immediate reports of damage. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Yilan County area on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. It measured 4 in other parts of eastern, northern and central Taiwan as well as Tainan, and 3 in Kaohsiung and Pingtung County, and 2 in Lienchiang and Penghu counties and 1
FOREIGN INTERFERENCE: Beijing would likely intensify public opinion warfare in next year’s local elections to prevent Lai from getting re-elected, the ‘Yomiuri Shimbun’ said Internal documents from a Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company indicated that China has been using the technology to intervene in foreign elections, including propaganda targeting Taiwan’s local elections next year and presidential elections in 2028, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday. The Institute of National Security of Vanderbilt University obtained nearly 400 pages of documents from GoLaxy, a company with ties to the Chinese government, and found evidence that it had apparently deployed sophisticated, AI-driven propaganda campaigns in Hong Kong and Taiwan to shape public opinion, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported. GoLaxy provides insights, situation analysis and public opinion-shaping technology by conducting network surveillance
‘POLITICAL GAME’: DPP lawmakers said the motion would not meet the legislative threshold needed, and accused the KMT and the TPP of trivializing the Constitution The Legislative Yuan yesterday approved a motion to initiate impeachment proceedings against President William Lai (賴清德), saying he had undermined Taiwan’s constitutional order and democracy. The motion was approved 61-50 by lawmakers from the main opposition Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), who together hold a legislative majority. Under the motion, a roll call vote for impeachment would be held on May 19 next year, after various hearings are held and Lai is given the chance to defend himself. The move came after Lai on Monday last week did not promulgate an amendment passed by the legislature that
AFTERMATH: The Taipei City Government said it received 39 minor incident reports including gas leaks, water leaks and outages, and a damaged traffic signal A magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck off Taiwan’s northeastern coast late on Saturday, producing only two major aftershocks as of yesterday noon, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The limited aftershocks contrast with last year’s major earthquake in Hualien County, as Saturday’s earthquake occurred at a greater depth in a subduction zone. Saturday’s earthquake struck at 11:05pm, with its hypocenter about 32.3km east of Yilan County Hall, at a depth of 72.8km. Shaking was felt in 17 administrative regions north of Tainan and in eastern Taiwan, reaching intensity level 4 on Taiwan’s seven-tier seismic scale, the CWA said. In Hualien, the
RSS