To avoid further misunderstandings between Taiwan and the US, the Presidential Office on Monday briefed American Institute in Taiwan officials on President Chen Shui-bian's (
"We hope that the US government can gain a full understanding of the president's ideas in the shortest time instead of having misunderstandings conveyed to them through fragmented media reports," the source said.
Chen told reporters on Monday that the five noes promise made in his inauguration speech no longer applied because of China's military threats against Taiwan.
Chen said that in the three years since taking over the presidency, he had made many concessions to China, especially in tolerating an upsurge in the number of ballistic missiles targeting Taiwan.
"But I cannot keep making compromises without any principle," Chen said. "Therefore, if China launches any missile tests, I will formally announce that the five noes promise no longer exists."
The source said that the president's tough stance highlighted his resolution to hold a referendum alongside the presidential election next March, and was a warning to Beijing not to provoke Taiwan.
"The defensive referendum, which the president now calls a `peace referendum,' can in no way be withdrawn," the source said.
"The president has no intention of raising tensions between Taiwan and China, yet he cannot escape the media's concern over the five noes," the official said.
Presidential Office Secretary General Chiou I-jen (
"The president is making his thoughts and words clearer to the international community," Chiou said. "The president did not prepare to talk about the five noes, he was answering the media's question about the issue," Chiou said. "The good thing is that he made his ideas clearer."
Chiou said that the referendum would have no bearing on independence or reunification but was just a measure to secure the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.
"It is the Taiwanese government's bottom line, and President Chen strictly abides by it."
"The US government doesn't like Taiwan's defensive referendum, but it has never opposed it and we understand the US government's line," Chiou said.
"Logically speaking, the five noes do not exist, but in practical terms, the president has abided by it with all his efforts to seek peace," Chiou said.
"Speaking frankly, the president can no longer abide by the five noes since China's actions have not meet Chen's request," Chiou said. "But the president would like to compromise. However, the compromise should not be without limits -- as soon as any missile is launched, the five noes will be revoked," he said.
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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