Only Taiwanese can determine the nation’s future and future cross-strait relations through the Jan. 16 elections, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, as she sharply criticized President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) performance in Singapore on Saturday.
Tsai criticized the remarks Ma made after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), saying they did not represent mainstream public opinion in Taiwan.
“Ma’s performance at yesterday’s [Saturday’s] meeting has left many Taiwanese disenchanted and even fuming,” Tsai wrote on Facebook.
Photo: Spencer Chang, Taipei Times
“That is because, as far as Taiwanese are concerned, they only see Ma’s complacency over his extended handshake with Xi at the meeting as recognized by the international community,” Tsai wrote.
“What was absent throughout the event was [any mention of] Taiwan’s democracy and the Republic of China [ROC],” Tsai added.
Ma’s landmark meeting with Xi at the Shangri-La Hotel was the first official meeting between cross-strait leaders since the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was defeated by the Chinese Communist Party in the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Ma failed in his duties as the nation’s leader to make his people proud or feel safe, and instead created more anxiety and social division, Tsai said.
“From Ma’s mouth, democracy, freedom and the 23 million Taiwanese people’s right to choose freely all disappeared. For the sake of his personal political status, Ma has confined Taiwan’s future to a political box and deprived its citizens of their right to make their own decisions,” she said.
Ma’s rhetoric has strayed from Taiwan’s “status quo” and failed to represent mainstream opinion, Tsai said, adding that only the “new public opinion” voiced through the January polls could decide Taiwan’s future.
Tsai said she could fully understand the public’s anxiety and unease following Saturday’s meeting.
“Luckily, Taiwan still has its strong shields: people power and democratic systems, which are manifested as ballots in voters’ hands. We have many ways to express our discontent, but the most powerful one will be to remove the current administration with our ballots on Jan. 16,” Tsai said.
People First Party presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) yesterday also voiced regret over Ma’s actions, saying the president failed as a national leader to fully express his stances on the existence and dignity of the ROC, as well as the fundamental rights and welfare of Taiwanese.
Soong, who had welcomed the meeting, said that Ma’s remarks and failure to mention the ROC during his seven-minute speech in Singapore prior to the meeting indicated that the “one China” principle was the cornerstone of the so-called “1992 consensus.”
“It was a major step backward for safeguarding the existence of the ROC... It is particularly preposterous that Ma, who served as head of the Mainland Affairs Council, would forget the ROC,” Soong said.
The “1992 consensus” refers to a supposed understanding reached during cross-strait talks in 1992 that both Taiwan and China acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what that means. Former Mainland Affairs Council chairman Su Chi (蘇起) admitted that he had made up the term in 2000 while still in office.
Soong said Xi agreeing to the meeting constituted a tacit recognition of the existence of the ROC government, but Ma’s performance wasted a rare chance to break through the “1992 consensus” and reinforce the concept of separate governments across the Taiwan Strait.
The lack of perspective and preparation on the part of Ma’s administration, coupled with his over-eagerness to meet Xi, reduced the meeting to a political spectacle, with the Ma administration playing the role of a desperate supporting actor, Soong said.
RESILIENCE: Taiwan plays a key role in semiconductors, energy, information infrastructure and advanced manufacturing, AIT Director Raymond Greene said Taiwan’s continued investment in deterrence and resilience remains vital, especially in uncrewed systems and other emerging technologies, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday. Greene made the remarks at the annual National Strategic Summit on Supply Chain Resilience held by the Research Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET), a government-backed think tank. As Taiwan last year became the US’ fourth-largest trading partner and supply chain security is becoming more important, cooperation in emerging technologies continues to deepen between the two countries, he said. The US is committed to accelerating innovation, building key infrastructure, strengthening cooperation
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
RIGHT DIRECTION: Taiwan’s efforts to prevent forced labor include a proposal to ‘fully prohibit’ employers from withholding workers’ documents, an official said Taiwan is to establish a mechanism to restrict imports of goods linked to forced labor, the Executive Yuan said yesterday, after the US proposed imposing additional tariffs on Taiwanese goods over labor concerns. “The Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are to establish an interministerial review procedure,” Executive Yuan spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “The government is to use the Foreign Trade Act [貿易法] as the legal basis to restrict imports of goods produced with forced labor” and bring its supply chain governance more in line with international standards on human rights, resilience
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
RSS