The Taiwan Brain Trust (TBT) think tank yesterday urged the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to be “localized,” and China to be practical in handling cross-strait relations.
The KMT’s heavy defeat showed voters do not trust the party’s China-leaning policies, therefore the KMT should adjust its stance and become more “localized,” Soochow University political science professor Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) told a news conference at the think tank’s headquarters in Taipei.
“When the Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜) incident happened, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) immediately expressed his support [for Chou], but it still became a political tsunami, and while all three presidential candidates had similar reactions, the KMT was still hurt the most by it,” said Hsu, who is also a New Power Party legislator-at-large-elect.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Chou, a 16-year-old Taiwanese singer in South Korea, was labelled by China-based Taiwanese singer Huang An (黃安) as a supporter of Taiwan independence after she held a Republic of China (ROC) flag on a TV show in South Korea. A video clip released late on Friday that showed Chou apologizing drew angry responses in Taiwan. Many reacted by casting their votes for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Saturday to show their discontent over China’s sovereignty claim over Taiwan.
Meanwhile, think tank deputy executive director Lin Ting-hui (林廷輝) called on Beijing to take a more practical approach in its handling of cross-strait relations.
“Taiwanese want a transparent, open and healthy cross-strait relationship,” Lin said. “Ma might have done much, but the problems are transparency and justice.”
Lin said that in the past 10 years, the KMT has had an almost monopoly over cross-strait exchanges, adding that such exchanges have not been effective, but have contributed to a rising Taiwan identity and a sense of crisis among the public.
“Beijing has always said that it ‘puts hopes in the people of Taiwan,’ and it is time for it to rethink what that means,” Lin said. “Tsai has held out the olive branch in her acceptance speech that she would strive to maintain the ‘status quo’ while trying to communicate with Beijing, and now it is Beijing’s turn to think how it would respond to the call.”
An Emirates flight from Dubai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport yesterday afternoon, the first service of the airline since the US and Israel launched strikes against Iran on Saturday. Flight EK366 took off from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) at 3:51am yesterday and landed at 4:02pm before taxiing to the airport’s D6 gate at Terminal 2 at 4:08pm, data from the airport and FlightAware, a global flight tracking site, showed. Of the 501 passengers on the flight, 275 were Taiwanese, including 96 group tour travelers, the data showed. Tourism Administration Deputy Director-General Huang He-ting (黃荷婷) greeted Taiwanese passengers at the airport and
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One person was killed and another seven injured today when a tourist shuttle bus plunged 30m to 40m down a ravine in Nantou County, the Tourism Administration said. The bus is suspected to have suddenly accelerated out of control near the flower center of the Sun-Link-Sea Forest Recreation Area, a popular attraction during cherry blossom season. Of the eight onboard, a 66-year-old man was killed, four were seriously injured and three sustained minor injuries, including the driver. The Nantou County Police Department said it received a report of the incident at 12:15pm and dispatched seven teams to assist. All surviving passengers have been transferred
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