Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and former chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) statement that cross-strait relations are “not international relations” during his Double Ten National Day speech on Thursday was unacceptable.
“If cross-strait relations are not international relations, I would like to know what they are,” Su said.
Taiwanese elect their own leader and the People’s Republic of China has been established for more than six decades, Su said, adding that neither the public nor the DPP can accept Ma’s comments.
“Why did Ma make this comment after the election rather than during his election campaign?” Su said.
Aside from describing cross-strait ties as “not international relations,” Ma said that “people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are all Chinese by ethnicity (zhonghua minzu, 中華民族).
Tsai said that Ma had placed his own political interests above that of the public and exceeded his mandate by making such comments.
Ma should not risk sacrificing the nation’s interests to shift the focus away from his poor domestic governance, Tsai said on the sidelines of an event held by her Thinking Taiwan Foundation.
“The last thing we want to see is an embattled president making concessions to China or other countries to consolidate his own political status,” Tsai said. “The most important task for a national leader is to safeguard the nation’s sovereignty. With regards to the cross-strait relationship, it should be decided by Taiwan’s 23 million people, not by the president.”
Making such a bold pronouncement without going through the democratic process and respecting public consensus would be a breach of duty and a violation of his mandate, she said.
At a separate setting, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chih (王郁琦) defended Ma’s comments, saying what the president said was consistent with the government’s cross-strait policies.
“President Ma has said in the past that cross-strait relations are not state-to-state relations, and his remarks on National Day carried the same meaning,” Wang said.
Last year, Ma said that cross-strait relations are not state-to-state relations, but rather a “special relationship because the two sides do not recognize each other’s sovereignty, but would not deny each other’s existence.”
FALSE DOCUMENTS? Actor William Liao said he was ‘voluntarily cooperating’ with police after a suspect was accused of helping to produce false medical certificates Police yesterday questioned at least six entertainers amid allegations of evasion of compulsory military service, with Lee Chuan (李銓), a member of boy band Choc7 (超克7), and actor Daniel Chen (陳大天) among those summoned. The New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office in January launched an investigation into a group that was allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified medical documents. Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) has been accused of being one of the group’s clients. As the investigation expanded, investigators at New Taipei City’s Yonghe Precinct said that other entertainers commissioned the group to obtain false documents. The main suspect, a man surnamed
The government is considering polices to increase rental subsidies for people living in social housing who get married and have children, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. During an interview with the Plain Law Movement (法律白話文) podcast, Cho said that housing prices cannot be brought down overnight without affecting banks and mortgages. Therefore, the government is focusing on providing more aid for young people by taking 3 to 5 percent of urban renewal projects and zone expropriations and using that land for social housing, he said. Single people living in social housing who get married and become parents could obtain 50 percent more
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Democracies must remain united in the face of a shifting geopolitical landscape, former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told the Copenhagen Democracy Summit on Tuesday, while emphasizing the importance of Taiwan’s security to the world. “Taiwan’s security is essential to regional stability and to defending democratic values amid mounting authoritarianism,” Tsai said at the annual forum in the Danish capital. Noting a “new geopolitical landscape” in which global trade and security face “uncertainty and unpredictability,” Tsai said that democracies must remain united and be more committed to building up resilience together in the face of challenges. Resilience “allows us to absorb shocks, adapt under
RSS