The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presumptive presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) should specify which country she would like to lead, as her seeming refusal to recognize the existence of the Republic of China (ROC) in cross-strait relations throws the issue into confusion, opposition figures said yesterday.
Hung brought more controversy with her “one China, same interpretation” proposal when she said during an interview with Taiwan Television on Thursday night that the strategy was aimed at pressing China to recognize the existence of the “government” of the ROC, because “I can’t say that the ROC exists.”
A mention of the existence of the ROC would be tantamount to defining cross-strait relations as “state-to-state” relations, Hung said, a reference to what former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) had proposed in 1999.
Democratic Progressive Party spokesperson Juan Chao-hsiung (阮昭雄) yesterday asked Hung to clarify “which country she is running for.”
Hung’s “one China, same interpretation” is a “reckless” proposal that goes against mainstream opinion to “make the ROC nonexistent,” Juan said.
Given the fact that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has said he considered Hung’s “one China, same interpretation” identical to his proposal that Taiwan and China agree to the “one China” principle with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means, Ma should also clarify whether he finds Hung’s “no mention of the ROC” acceptable, Juan said.
Political activist Shih Ming-te (施明德), who has been seeking independent presidential candidacy, yesterday asked Hung not to run for president if there is no room for the ROC in her proposed cross-strait policy.
Shih said on Thursday night he was “pissed off” when he heard Hung’s views about her “one China, same interpretation” proposal.
“How can she say something like that?” Shih said. “If you can’t mention the ROC, please do not run for president of the ROC and please do not serve as deputy legislative speaker of the ROC.”
The New Power Party yesterday demanded a debate between its leader Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and Hung on the “one China, same interpretation” proposal.
Hung’s proposal has denigrated the status of Taiwan and is detrimental to the nation’s sovereignty, the New Power Party said in a statement.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
POSSIBILITIES EMERGE: With Taiwan’s victory and Japan’s narrow win over Australia, Taiwan now have a chance to advance if South Korea also beat the Aussies Taiwan has high hopes that the national baseball team would advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarter-finals after clinching a crucial 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome yesterday. Boosted by three home runs — two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild — the triumph gave Taiwan a much-needed second victory in the five-team Pool C, where only the top two finishers would advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida. Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan scored
MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed
RSS