President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should devise plans to reduce the possibility of the Chinese government launching an armed assault on Taiwan, lawmakers said yesterday.
“No one should ever rule out the possibility” of a Chinese attack, Tsai said during an interview on Monday, when asked by political talk show host Cheng Hung-yi (鄭弘儀) whether China could launch an armed assault on Taiwan.
However, as all decisionmaking by national leaders come at a cost, how the scenario would play out would depend on whether the Chinese president can make rational decisions, Tsai said.
Photo copied from the SET iNews Web site
Considering the international situation and regional stability, there is a “high likelihood” that China would launch an attack on Taiwan, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ma Wen-chun (馬文君) said yesterday.
When the KMT made comments similar to Tsai’s, it was criticized for “terrorizing people,” Ma said, asking whether Tsai’s words were meant to terrorize people or boost the national defense budget, which is under legislative review.
While Tsai was right in making the comments from the viewpoint of national defense, the government should not have tunnel vision when it comes to upholding security, she said.
Taiwan could assume that all other nations are its enemies, but it could also assume that they are friends, Ma said, urging Tsai to devise strategies to uphold the nation’s security.
Rather than just pointing out a problem, Tsai should come up with ways to solve it to avoid a scenario in which Taiwan is attacked by China, KMT caucus secretary-general Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) said.
Peaceful developments between Taiwan and China are the shared hope of people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, Lee said, adding that this hope would only become reality if leaders on both sides demonstrate patience and wisdom.
No national leader can rule out external threats, and even though war in the Strait does not pose an immediate threat to the nation, it is undeniable that it is a long-standing crisis, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) said.
The crisis has been deepening, even when the KMT was the ruling party, which proves that it is unaffected by changing political landscapes, Lo said.
He called for a channel of communication, such as a hotline, between Taiwan and China to be established, saying that if the lack of mutual trust and communication continues, any accident could escalate into war.
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
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
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
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