A country will not move forward with a “silent generation” of young people, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) said in Changhua County yesterday, voicing his support for young students protesting against a major media merger deal.
Responding to media inquiries, Lee said he did not understand all the details of the Want Want China Times Group’s (旺旺中時媒體集團) acquisition of cable TV services owned by China Network Systems (CNS, 中嘉網路), but he supported young students speaking up for media freedom.
About 700 people, most of them students, protested on Tuesday against the deal, which they said would create a media monopoly, and the media group’s sustained attacks on Academia Sinica associate research fellow Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), an outspoken media expert who opposes the merger.
Photo: CNA
Freedom of speech should never be monopolized, Lee said on the second day of his three-day visit to central Taiwan, adding that media freedom is essential for a healthy society because people need adequate information to be able to pass judgements and make assessments.
Lee said he participated in protests before going into politics.
As a 40-year-old university professor, Lee and five academics launched a protest against private businesses’ planned purchase of 4,000 hectares of land in Yunlin County’s Sihhu (四湖) and Kouhu (口湖) townships, the former president said.
The protest stopped the land deal.
“A country cannot move forward without young people who have a sense of justice and fairness,” Lee said.
The former president, who was given the nickname “Mr Democracy,” also addressed several political issues.
On the disputed Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台), Lee, who holds that the islands are Japanese territory, said Taiwanese and Chinese leaders had failed to demonstrate through historical fact or international law how the islands could be considered their territory.
Territory cannot be transferred without an act of war or a signature on a treaty, Lee said.
“China always loves to say this place or that place is its ‘traditional territory.’ But you need to address issues like this based on facts and history,” Lee said.
For a Taiwanese government to say that the islands fall under the administration of Toucheng Township (頭城), Yilan County, shows that the nation’s leader “did not conduct enough research and was kind of stupid,” he said.
On Chinese officials’ comments that “both sides of the Taiwan Strait belong to one country,” Lee said that before the birth of the Republic of China, there was no nation known as China, just dynasties with different names, so it is ridiculous to cite history and tradition as the basis for both sides of the Taiwan Strait belonging to one country.
Lee also warned the Democratic Progressive Party about its “new mentality” in dealing with its cross-strait policy after suffering a defeat in the presidential election in January.
“Improving mutual understanding does not necessarily require the establishment of a Chinese Affairs Committee or anything like that,” he said.
Both sides should respect each other’s independence during the process of forging mutual understanding, he said, adding that improving bilateral relations “does not mean you have to say anything for the sake of pleasing Beijing.”
Lee said he was invited to give a speech about the democratization of Taiwan and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) at Beijing University, but judged it was too early to visit a country ruled by an authoritarian regime.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
STRAIT OF HORMUZ: In the case of a prolonged blockade by Iran, Taiwan would look to sources of LNG outside the Middle East, including Australia and the US Taiwan would not have to ration power due to a shortage of natural gas, Minister of Economic Affairs Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said yesterday, after reports that the Strait of Hormuz was closed amid the conflict in the Middle East. The government has secured liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies for this month and contingency measures are in place if the conflict extends into next month, Kung told lawmakers. Saying that 25 percent of Taiwan’s natural gas supplies are from Qatar, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) asked about the situation in light of the conflict. There would be “no problems” with
RSS