The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is said to have invited several public figures not affiliated with the party — including National Chengchi University professor Hsu Shih-jung (徐世榮), a campaigner often seen on the streets protesting the government’s land policies — to its weekly Central Standing Committee meeting to deliver speeches.
The Chinese-language Apple Daily reported that the KMT is to invite personalities from different walks of life to the meeting, which until now has seen only public officials giving policy presentations.
The list of invitations disclosed so far includes Hsu, director Khan Lee (李崗), who is now working on the second part of Taiwanese history documentary film Attabu (阿罩霧風雲), and high-school teacher Tseng Kai-hsin (曾愷芯), a male by birth who has recently received national attention for her decision to undergo gender reassignment surgery.
Photo: Chen Ping-hung, Taipei Times
Hsu confirmed the report on Facebook, saying that he has accepted the invitation and is slated to give a speech at the meeting on Wednesday next week.
Responding to netizens who said his speech to the KMT would amount to casting pearls before swine, Hsu said that even so, it would still be worth a try.
“I would also be glad to give speeches to other parties if I’m invited,” he said. “It is a chance for us to let these people in the corridors of power know that land exppropriation, a basic human rights issue, requires meeting rigorous conditions for its execution.”
“I would also take this opportunity to express the pain of the victims of the Dapu incident and many self-help organizations across the country, and [report] the unfair treatment they have been subjected to,” he said.
According to the report, Tseng said she has not yet received an invitation from the KMT to address the party, but that she would probably decline the offer because she “does not like to attend events that are too politically oriented.”
KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) promised an “open KMT” when he was sworn in, and inviting non-party-affiliated public figures is the first step in fulfilling that idea, KMT Secretary-General Lee Shu-chuan (李四川) said.
The US Department of State yesterday criticized Beijing over its misrepresentation of the US’ “one China” policy in the latest diplomatic salvo between the two countries over a bid by Taiwan to regain its observer status at the World Health Assembly, the decisionmaking body of the WHO. “The PRC [People’s Republic of China] continues to publicly misrepresent U.S. policy,” Department of State spokesman Ned Price wrote on Twitter. “The United States does not subscribe to the PRC’s ‘one China principle’ — we remain committed to our longstanding, bipartisan one China policy, guided by the Taiwan Relations Act, Three Joint Communiques, and
FATES LINKED: The US president said that sanctions on Russia over Ukraine must exact a ‘long-term price,’ because otherwise ‘what signal does that send to China?’ US President Joe Biden yesterday vowed that US forces would defend Taiwan militarily in the event of a Chinese attack in his strongest statement to date on the issue. Beijing is already “flirting with danger,” Biden said following talks with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Tokyo, in which the pair agreed to monitor Chinese naval activity and joint Chinese-Russian exercises. Asked if Washington was willing to get involved militarily to defend Taiwan, he replied: “Yes.” “That’s the commitment we made,” Biden said. “We agreed with the ‘one China’ policy, we signed on to it ... but the idea that it can be
INFORMATION LEAKED: Documents from Xinjiang purportedly showed top leaders in Beijing calling for a forceful crackdown and even orders to shoot to kill Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday held a videoconference with UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet as she visited Xinjiang during a mission overshadowed by fresh allegations of Uighur abuses and fears she is being used as a public relations tool. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has been accused of detaining more than 1 million Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in the region as part of a years-long crackdown the US and lawmakers in other Western nations have labeled a “genocide.” China denies the allegations. Bachelet was expected to visit the cities of Urumqi and Kashgar on a six-day tour. The US
SUBTLE? While Biden said the US policy of ‘strategic ambiguity’ on Taiwan had not changed, the group targeted China and Russia without naming them Leaders of Australia, India, Japan and the US yesterday warned against attempts to “change the status quo by force,” as concerns grow about whether China could invade Taiwan. The issue of Taiwan loomed over a leadership meeting in Tokyo of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad) nations — the US, Japan, Australia and India — who stressed their determination to ensure a free and open Indo-Pacific region in the face of an increasingly assertive China, although Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said the group was not targeting any one country. The four leaders said in a joint statement issued after their talks
RSS