Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) formally declared her candidacy for next year’s presidential race yesterday after receiving her party’s nomination, calling for solidarity and strength to change the nation.
“Today is an important day and I am honored to accept the DPP’s nomination to take part in the Republic of China’s next presidential election on behalf of the DPP,” Tsai, 58, told a press conference at DPP headquarters in Taipei.
Tsai’s nomination was approved at a meeting of the party’s Central Executive Committee to a round of applause shortly before the press conference.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
It will be Tsai’s second shot at the presidency, after losing to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the 2012 presidential election, in which Tsai garnered 45.63 percent of the votes, while Ma received 51.6 percent.
“The night we were beaten, there were many young people crying,” Tsai said.
“Today, I want to tell you all — and myself — I will do whatever I can to turn those tears to laughter,” Tsai added.
Tsai said the development of cross-strait relations had to be subject to the will of Taiwanese and could not be undertaken as party-to-party negotiations.
“The basic principle of our party in cross-strait relations is to maintain the ‘status quo,’” Tsai said.
“After we [the DPP] come to power, we will examine agreements [with China] case by case, according to the law, and will continue negotiations,” she added.
Tsai also attacked the KMT over the nation’s growing wealth gap and growing youth unemployment, vowing to rehabilitate the nation’s economy.
“The government has shut the door on the public and refused to listen to them,” she said.
The KMT has yet to announce its nomination, but Tsai leads all the likely candidates in opinion polls.
As the DPP announced its candidate for next year’s presidential election, China yesterday warned the party to heed the lessons of the last time it was in power and not to push for independence.
“If [the DPP] upholds the Taiwanese independence splittist position of ‘one country on either side of the Taiwan Strait,’ then it will be hard to find a way out for cross-strait relations,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) told a regular press briefing in Beijing. “This is not a new talking point — this is what happened between 2000 and 2008. One need not look far for a lesson.”
NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT: An official said that Guan Guan’s comments had gone beyond the threshold of free speech, as she advocated for the destruction of the ROC China-born media influencer Guan Guan’s (關關) residency permit has been revoked for repeatedly posting pro-China content that threatens national security, the National Immigration Agency said yesterday. Guan Guan has said many controversial things in her videos posted to Douyin (抖音), including “the red flag will soon be painted all over Taiwan” and “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China,” while expressing hope for expedited “reunification.” The agency received multiple reports alleging that Guan Guan had advocated for armed reunification last year. After investigating, the agency last month issued a notice requiring her to appear and account for her actions. Guan Guan appeared as required,
A strong cold air mass is expected to arrive tonight, bringing a change in weather and a drop in temperature, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The coldest time would be early on Thursday morning, with temperatures in some areas dipping as low as 8°C, it said. Daytime highs yesterday were 22°C to 24°C in northern and eastern Taiwan, and about 25°C to 28°C in the central and southern regions, it said. However, nighttime lows would dip to about 15°C to 16°C in central and northern Taiwan as well as the northeast, and 17°C to 19°C elsewhere, it said. Tropical Storm Nokaen, currently
PAPERS, PLEASE: The gang exploited the high value of the passports, selling them at inflated prices to Chinese buyers, who would treat them as ‘invisibility cloaks’ The Yilan District Court has handed four members of a syndicate prison terms ranging from one year and two months to two years and two months for their involvement in a scheme to purchase Taiwanese passports and resell them abroad at a massive markup. A Chinese human smuggling syndicate purchased Taiwanese passports through local criminal networks, exploiting the passports’ visa-free travel privileges to turn a profit of more than 20 times the original price, the court said. Such criminal organizations enable people to impersonate Taiwanese when entering and exiting Taiwan and other countries, undermining social order and the credibility of the nation’s
‘SALAMI-SLICING’: Beijing’s ‘gray zone’ tactics around the Pratas Islands have been slowly intensifying, with the PLA testing Taiwan’s responses and limits, an expert said The Ministry of National Defense yesterday condemned an intrusion by a Chinese drone into the airspace of the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) as a serious disruption of regional peace. The ministry said it detected the Chinese surveillance and reconnaissance drone entering the southwestern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone early yesterday, and it approached the Pratas Islands at 5:41am. The ministry said it immediately notified the garrison stationed in the area to enhance aerial surveillance and alert levels, and the drone was detected in the islands’ territorial airspace at 5:44am, maintaining an altitude outside the effective range of air-defense weaponry. Following
RSS