Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) yesterday leveled indirect criticism at the students who took part in the Sunflower movement, insinuating that they are people who “complain all day long about the government” and “blame others for their failures.”
Jiang made the comments as he addressed members of the Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce at a breakfast meeting, telling the business leaders about his recent encounters with young entrepreneurs in various fields, such as information, communication, technology and agriculture.
“[In the entrepreneurs] I saw the future of Taiwan and the forces that drive its economic development. I didn’t consider them to be uncompetitive as they are portrayed in the media and didn’t hear them grumbling about the government,” Jiang said. “Aside from the students who protested in the [Sunflower] movement, there are young people in every corner of the country who are full of ideas and energy, who want to go on adventures and make their endeavors successful, just like every one of you.”
Photo: CNA
“They do not complain about the government all day. They are not like the young people [in the Sunflower movement] who blame others for their failure,” the premier added.
Jiang said the young businesspeople he met gave him hope for the country’s future and led him to realize that he has the responsibility to help Taiwan’s youth make their dreams come true and, in doing so, lay a solid foundation for the nation’s continued progress.
The Sunflower movement was sparked on March 18 by a student-led occupation of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei to protest against the government’s handling of the cross-strait trade service agreement. It ended on April 10 when the activists voluntarily exited the legislative chamber.
Sunflower movement leaders Chen Wei-ting (陳為廷) and Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) yesterday fired back at Jiang over his remarks, calling on the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to own up to its failures.
Chen said that young Taiwanese have never been afraid to fall — had they been, they would not have risen time and again to challenge public officials’ question-dodging, hollow statements and authorities’ crackdowns on young protesters.
“We would like to ask Jiang not to attribute his failures to us [the Sunflower activists],” he said.
Although Chen called the tone of the premier’s address at yesterday’s meeting “cliched,” saying that it is the same one adopted by Ma during his inaugural speech six years ago, the student activist said he found Jiang’s remarks more insulting than the president’s.
“At least Ma made an effort to tone down the comments he made by citing a few examples of businesses established by self-made young Taiwanese... Jiang only said: ‘Students who didn’t take part in the [Sunflower] movement,’ without even bothering to cite any examples,” Chen said.
Lin said the Ma administration is only willing to hold dialogue with a handful of capitalists who submit to its rule. Only a corrupt leader would keep out their citizens with barb wires and barricades, Chen said, dubbing the strategy “the ostrich theory.”
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) said that the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) categorizing of all young Taiwanese into either: “Sunflower movement participants” or “non-Sunflower movement participants” was ridiculous.
Tuan said that according to the KMT’s “logic,” the movement’s participants are anti-government brats who are constantly whining, while their counterparts are hardworking, promising young men people who never shirk their responsibilities.
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