Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday lashed out at President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) planned meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), calling it a manipulation of the January elections and labelling the decisionmaking process as opaque.
“Now is a sensitive period of time as election campaigns are underway in Taiwan, and the public would definitely question whether [the president] is intending to influence the election result by holding a Ma-Xi meeting,” Tsai said.
“If the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT] always chooses to politically manipulate cross-strait issues ahead of elections, it would have a negative impact on the cross-strait relationship in the long run and would not win support from the people of Taiwan,” she said.
Photo: Reuters
Saying she was shocked upon learning late on Tuesday that Ma is to meet Xi, Tsai panned the decisionmaking process as harmful to Taiwan’s democracy.
“I would like to stress that, we would be happy to see normal cross-strait exchanges based on equality and dignity, openness and transparency, and no political talks,” Tsai said, adding that news of the meeting has triggered questions and doubts from the public because people have lost confidence in the government when it comes to cross-strait exchanges and do not want to see any more opaque decisionmaking.
“I must point out that Ma’s term as president will soon be ending, we therefore would absolutely not allow him to promise something that he cannot be responsible for to gain political reputation for himself,” Tsai said. “He has no right to do so.”
Tsai said that the DPP would keep an eye on the meeting.
In a separate press conference, DPP spokesperson Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said that when running for re-election, Ma promised he would not meet with the Chinese leader during his term as president.
“Now that he was in such a rush to arrange a meeting in an opaque way, we demand that he clearly explain to the public why he has to meet with Xi at this time,” Cheng said. “How has he been in touch with the Chinese? How will the meeting proceed, what will he say and what he will do?”
Cheng said that as president, Ma must remember to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty and dignity, and refrain from making moves that would misguide the international community, as well as not make any political promises or sign any documents.
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
Taiwan is still in the process of assessing the possibility of recruiting workers from Eswatini, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, adding that its goal is to help Eswatini upgrade its vocational training centers. If there are plans to recruit workers from Eswatini, safeguarding national security, protecting public health and ensuring the employment rights of Taiwanese would be prerequisites, Department of West Asian and African Affairs Director-General Yen Chia-liang (顏嘉良) told a news conference. Key considerations would also include filling labor shortages in specific industries, and fostering bilateral professional and technical exchanges, he said. Yen was asked about the progress of labor
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
A US uncrewed surface vessel (USV) encountered multiple Chinese warships during an autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait, US defense company Seasats said in a statement on Wednesday. Seasats announced that a Lightfish USV had completed the first autonomous transit of the Taiwan Strait. Over five days, the USV traversed the entire length of the Strait while constantly monitoring surface vessel traffic, the company said. The Lightfish encountered multiple Chinese warships, one of which was a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) Type 056 corvette, it said. The Chinese vessels were operating “well within Taiwan’s exclusive economic zone without transmitting their identity via the
RSS