Premier William Lai (賴清德) yesterday told reporters that his approach toward Taiwanese independence was pragmatic and based on three tenets.
Lai held a media roundtable in Hualien County, where reporters asked about his depiction of himself as a “political worker for Taiwanese independence.” He had once again used the term at an April 3 seminar on freedom of speech held by the Ministry of the Interior.
He said the first tenet is that Taiwan is a sovereign, independent nation and therefore does not need to declare independence, Lai said.
Photo: Lee Hsin-fang, Taipei Times
The second is that only the nation’s 23 million people have the right to decide Taiwan’s future, and the third is that building up Taiwan and making it stronger and more attractive to people so that they support it is a practical approach to Taiwanese independence, Lai said.
Working for Taiwanese independence involves safeguarding the nation’s sovereignty, protecting its freedom, democracy and human rights, and safeguarding the public’s right to decide Taiwan’s future, he added.
It also means developing the economy and creating growth so that people can live and work in peace; maintaining peaceful development and enhancing mutual understanding across the Taiwan Strait; and working with Japan, South Korea and the US to ensure security in the Asia-Pacific region, he said.
While Lai has consistently emphasized his role as a “Taiwanese independence worker,” it has taken different tones over the past year.
At the April 3 seminar, Lai recalled saying during his first administrative report to the Legislative Yuan as premier in September last year that he was a “Taiwanese independence worker,” but added: “I did not say I advocate Taiwanese independence.”
However, in that report on Sept. 26, Lai told lawmakers that when he was Tainan mayor, he had told the city council that he was a “political worker who advocates Taiwanese independence” and that “this will not change, no matter what position I am in.”
In June last year, while still mayor, Lai said he felt an “affinity toward China as much as he loves Taiwan,” and argued at the legislative hearing in September that this did not contradict his stance on Taiwanese independence.
Chinese media reported that live-fire exercises in the Taiwan Strait scheduled for Wendesday by the People’s Liberation Army on Wednesday would serve as a warning after Lai’s pro-independence statements.
However, Lai yesterday said that his support for Taiwanese independence started in the 1990s and his political beliefs are well known.
TAKES THE CAKE: Chinese diplomats tried to take photographs of people attending a National Day event in Suva, before reportedly assaulting a Taiwanese diplomat The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned the Chinese embassy in Fiji over a fracas at its Double Ten National Day event at a Suva hotel, while a lawmaker demanded that the ministry file a lawsuit against Chinese embassy personnel for injuring a Taiwanese diplomat at the event. The Grubsheet news blog on Sunday and New Zealand-based Asia-Pacific Report Web site yesterday reported that two members of the Chinese embassy in Suva tried to force their way into a celebration held by the Taipei Trade Office in Fiji at the Grand Pacific Hotel on Oct. 8 to take photographs of
TAIPEI REACTIONS: Joanne Ou decried China’s ‘gangster diplomacy,’ while MOFA said its Fiji counterpart dealt fairly with the incident and protected the trade office’s rights The world should denounce the actions of Chinese embassy staffers in Fiji against a Taiwanese diplomat during a National Day celebration in Suva, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday as it thanked the Fijian government for its help after the Oct. 8 incident. Two Chinese diplomats tried to force their way into a celebration held by the Taipei Trade Office in Fiji at the Grand Pacific Hotel in Suva on Oct. 8, and a Taiwanese diplomat who tried to stop them taking photographs suffered a head injury. MOFA spokeswoman Joanne Ou (歐江安) told a news briefing that the ministry
The US, Japan and Australia conducted trilateral naval exercises in the South China Sea on Monday, the US Seventh Fleet announced yesterday. It was their fifth joint operations this year in the fleet’s area of operations, it said in a statement. The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS John S. McCain joined the JS Kirisame of the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force and the Royal Australian Navy’s HMAS Arunta. The Arunta’s commanding officer, Commander Troy Duggan, said that Australia was continuing to build on its already close relationship with Japan and the US. “This activity is a valuable and important opportunity for all three nations,”
UPS AND DOWNS: The institute’s annual Asia Power Index says that Taiwan this year has seen one of the biggest gains in diplomatic influences The US remains the top power in the Indo-Pacific, but has suffered the biggest relative fall in its standing in the region over the past year, partly because of the loss of prestige over the mishandling of COVID-19, the Lowy Institute’s Asia Power Index shows. Releasing the latest annual results yesterday, the Australia-based foreign policy think tank said while China’s standing had stalled, it remained in second place and was believed to be on track to match the US by the end of this decade. Australia was one of the few countries to gain in the scores of comprehensive power this year,
RSS