In an open letter published yesterday, former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) questioned President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) ability to lead the country.
Tsai said she had three questions for Ma on cross-strait relations: “Is Taiwan a nation? Are Taiwan and China the same nation? And is ‘one country, two areas’ (一國二區) a core principle for future cross-strait policy?”
“Beijing will pay close attention to Ma’s inauguration address on May 20, hoping he says ‘Taiwan and the Mainland belong to one China’ — the so-called ‘Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] and Chinese Communist Party consensus,’” Tsai said.
Ma’s “one country, two areas” proposal violates the Constitution — the country’s supreme legal statute — which exists to protect Taiwan, the homeland and its people’s basic rights, Tsai wrote.
The Republic of China is a sovereign country and the mention of “one country, two areas” in the constitutional structure is to regulate the rights and obligations of Taiwanese and Chinese, not to regulate relations between Taiwan and China, she said.
Tsai asked Ma to stop jeopardizing Taiwan’s national status through his misinterpretation of the Constitution.
On the issues of easing US beef imports, an insistence on raising fuel and electricity prices as well as levying a tax on capital gains, Tsai said the policymaking processes and their implementation suffered from a lack of democratic communication and “rational persuasiveness,” which caused “great social grievance” and which was forcing the public to take to the streets.
Tsai urged Ma to respond to public anxieties, think about a full Cabinet reshuffle, choose a premier with a good reputation and resist external pressures.
Tsai added that the government was a mess and said the Executive Yuan had been stripped of its rights with most ministers taking their orders directly from the Presidential Office.
Ma would do what he wants in his second term because he faces no electoral pressure, she wrote. As a result, Ma could abuse his powers and lead Taiwan back into an authoritarian era, she said.
In response to the letter, and similar criticism by Tsai in a recent radio interview, the Presidential Office said Ma’s policies were based on the principle of “prioritizing Taiwan and benefiting the people.”
Ma’s office issued the statement yesterday morning, following a series of negative appraisals by Tsai of what she said is Ma’s one-man policymaking process and his disputed proposal of “one country, two areas.”
The government has operated within the framework of the Constitution and remains open to different voices from all sectors of society, it said, adding that Ma would continue to listen to and respond to public opinion.
As for Ma’s “one country, two areas” formula, it reiterated that the design of “Taiwan and Mainland [sic] areas” as stipulated in the Constitution and the Act Governing the Relations between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) had remained the same since former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) was in office.
It said Tsai should know that Ma has not worked against the Constitution given her background and length of service as former Mainland Affairs Council chairperson and former vice premier.
Translation by Stacy Hsu, staff writer
A signaling system malfunction disrupted high-speed rail (HSR) services beginning at 8am today, with trains temporarily reduced to three northbound and three southbound trains per hour as authorities conduct inspections. The malfunction occurred on a section of track in Miaoli County during pre-operation checks early this morning, forcing northbound and southbound trains to use a single track, the HSR operator said. The regular schedule has been replaced with three hourly trains offering only nonreserved seating in each direction, stopping at every station, it said, adding that business class cars would still have reserved seating. Departures from terminal stations are scheduled at the top
DRONE CENTRAL: Taiwan aims to become Asia’s democratic hub for drones, with most exports focused on high-quality military-grade models, an official said Taiwan’s drone industry is expected to expand significantly by 2030, producing 100,000 units per month and exporting half of them, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Current drone production capacity is about 15,000 units per month, but the industry can quickly scale up as demand increases, Industrial Development Administration Director-General Chiou Chyou-huey (邱求慧) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s drone output grew 2.5-fold last year to NT$12.9 billion (US$408.3 million) under a government program to develop the uncrewed vehicle sector, he said. The Executive Yuan in October last year approved plans to invest NT$44.2 billion into domestic production of uncrewed aerial
VERBOSE VESSELS: A CGA cutter and a China Coast Guard exchanged verbal barbs for more than a day in Taiwanese-controlled waters before the Chinese vessel left The Taiwanese and Chinese coast guards had a standoff near the strategically located Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the north of the South China Sea, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The two sides engaged in intense radio exchanges over sovereignty claims during the 33-hour standoff. China Coast Guard vessel 3501 eventually left the restricted waters, 26.6 nautical miles (49.2km) west of the Pratas Islands, at 5pm yesterday, the CGA said. Lying approximately between southern Taiwan and Hong Kong, the Taiwan-controlled Pratas are seen by some security experts as vulnerable to Chinese attack due to their distance — more than
WARNING: China should stop engaging in actions that undermine regional peace and stability, as it would only build resentment among people across the Strait, the CGA said China has deployed more than 100 navy, coast guard and other vessels in waters from the Yellow Sea to the South China Sea and the western Pacific since US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) met in Beijing, National Security Council Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) said yesterday. “In this part of the world, #China is the one & only PROBLEM wrecking the #StatusQuo & threatening regional peace & stability,” Wu wrote on X. In a separate post, he said Beijing was coercing Taiwan’s maritime domain, calling it illegal and provocative, after the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) expelled a
RSS