President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen said yesterday that since the people still have high expectations of the DPP, the party should compete with the opposition parties on "determination on reform, not the sharpness of tongues."
In his role as DPP chairman, Chen joined 1,000 government and party officials at a Lunar New Year celebration -- an event apparently timed to compete with yesterday's meeting between KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
While the opposition parties appear to be preparing for next year's election by consolidating their strength, the DPP has yet to decide who will be on the ticket with Chen.
In a bid to reassure voters, Chen yesterday reminded DPP members to keep the people's expectations in mind, strive to improve the people's lives and "not to panic over disturbances from the outside."
Chen reiterated that it is a misconception to believe that opening the country further to the Chinese market will be an economic elixir -- a point he has stressed in several recent speeches.
"The issue is not that simple," he said.
He said the core of cross-strait relations is national security and peace between the two sides.
"As long as Taiwan's security can be assured, the two sides of the [Taiwan] Strait can build up a peaceful and stable interaction. Then the mutual economic barriers should be automatically eliminated," he said.
Meanwhile, the DPP yesterday questioned the reasons for a Lien-Soong pact, saying a ruling party should not exist solely to share power or because one person wants to be president.
DPP officials said the party would welcome the opposition coalition for the sake of positive partisan competition, but they cast doubt on the true motives for Lien and Soong's alliance.
They noted that PFP officials have often attacked the KMT for its corruption, while the KMT has ridiculed the PFP as a one-person party.
DPP officials said they wondered if this kind of criticism has ended. Otherwise, they said, the coalition is simply another form of political carpetbagging.
They also said they fear such an alliance would lead the nation into disaster if either party fails to honor its promises if they gain power.
However, one senior DPP official has found something positive in the Lien-Soong link-up.
Vice President Annette Lu (
"Come back Hsu Hsin-liang (
Hsu left the DPP in 2000 when he insisted on running as a candidate in that year's presidential election after the party nominated Chen to run.
Shih later quit the party in a gesture of support for Hsu.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching