Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said she might attend this year’s Double Ten National Day celebrations, while her Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rival, Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), questioned Tsai’s motives.
The DPP chairperson said she has received an invitation to the Double Ten National Day ceremony and has told her aides to adjust her itinerary next month so that she would “have a chance to attend the ceremony this year.”
Hung said that while she was glad to see “Tsai’s endorsement of the existence of the Republic of China [ROC],” Tsai should nevertheless “explain why, as the DPP chairperson, she had never attended the ceremony in the past six years or apologize to society [for not having attended].”
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Hung’s campaign office said that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has been in office for more than seven years, but Tsai had never attended the event in the past six years as the DPP chairperson.
“It shows that Tsai has never squarely faced the existence of the ROC,” Hung’s campaign team said.
Tsai should explain why she had suddenly decided to attend this year’s ceremony — three months from the presidential election — but not in the past, the team said.
However, netizens criticized the statement by Hung’s campaign office, saying that Hung did not attend the National Day celebrations from 2000 to 2005 — during president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) time in office.
Netizens posted an opinion piece published in 2006 in which Hung allegedly told a TV reporter before the Oct. 10 celebrations in 2006 that she had “for the past six years been too lazy to go to the National Day ceremony,” adding that “it was no big deal.”
Hung made the comments in response to Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng’s (王金平) suggestion that the ceremony be suspended because of the “red-shirt” protest demanding that Chen step down.
However, Hung changed her mind and later announced that she would “definitely attend the ceremony to join the red-shirt protesters against Chen.”
Hung’s office issued a press release later yesterday, asserting that Hung did not have to attend National Day celebrations during Chen’s regime because Chen was actually promoting Taiwanese independence and the ROC was only a facade.
“There was no need to attend celebrations by a government that upholds Taiwanese independence,” the office said. “[Hung] would not have attended the 2006 one if it was not for the anti-corruption protesters.”
“If Tsai really wants to safeguard the ROC, she should first drop the Taiwanese independence clause in the DPP platform,” it said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique