Premier Yu Shyi-kun yesterday expressed his opposition to former president Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) recent proposal to change the nation's official name from the Republic of China to Taiwan.
"A change to the nation's official designation would sabotage stability across the Taiwan Strait. The Cabinet is not planning, and doesn't think it's necessary, to change the national designation," Yu said, adding that he totally respected the freedom of speech of the former president.
Amendments to the Constitution are needed if the public wishes to change the official designation, national anthem or national flag, Yu said.
"Our cross-strait policy is clear, that is, stability and peace. To that end, we don't think it's a good idea to do anything provocative to sabotage stability," Yu said.
Yu made the remark in response to the question from PFP Legislator Chen Chien-sung (陳劍松).
Chen asked Yu whether he thought it would pose any danger to change the nation's official name from the Republic of China to Taiwan.
Yu yesterday also reiterated the Cabinet's support for holding referendums on significant public policy issues, including the fate of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.
"The government will continue the construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant unless there's irresistible force hampering the project or a referendum is held to halt the project," Yu said.
Yu, however, said that it is difficult for the government to hold any binding referendum before the legislature approves a draft referendum law that the Cabinet sent to the legislature in April last year.
"We're not opposed to, nor afraid of, holding referendums on significant public policy issues since it's a democratic norm to do so and we hope to see it take place soon," Yu said.
In the meantime, the Cabinet will evaluate various opinions and review the "technical problems" of holding a referendum, including non-binding ones, before rushing into anything, Yu said.
Yu also insinuated that the former KMT government procrastinated on passing a referendum law.
"While the Cabinet sent the draft bill to the legislature in 1993 and 2001, the legislature failed to pass it into law," Yu said.
"The bill should've been enacted a long time ago since it's a right guaranteed by the Constitution;" however, the former administration hesitated to do so because it was afraid of giving the people too much power, Yu said.
Also during the interpellation, both PFP Legislator Lin Yu-fang (
Citing legislative minutes dated March 18, 1994, Lin and Wu requested Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (
Chen Shui-bian alleged, when he was a lawmaker, that he held a cassette tape proving that a commission of US$500 million was paid by France in 1991 when six Lafayette-class frigates were sold to Taiwan.
The president recently, however, reportedly denied that he had questioned the scandal in the legislature.
Refusing to intervene in the investigation process, Chen Ding-nan said that he would convey the two legislators' opinions to the investigation task force.
The warship-purchase scandal was exposed in December 1993 after a fishing boat found the body of navy Captain Yin Ching-feng (
Yin was believed to have been murdered before being able to blow the whistle on colleagues over alleged kickbacks.
Wishing to solve the case, the defense ministry has offered a NT$100 million reward to anyone offering information leading to the resolution of the scandal.
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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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