Secretary General to the president Chiou I-jen (邱義仁) yesterday said that the content of President Shui-bian's (陳水扁) defensive referendum will not just be a simple "appeal" to protest China's military threats against Taiwan, but will propose "concrete" suggestions to allow the government making policy in the future.
"The United States government said that we should not make great efforts to just implement a meaningless referendum," Chiou said yesterday.
"Therefore, we must find a solution to make the referendum concrete and significant," he said.
Chiou invited local media to a year-end tea party at the Presidential Office, where he talked about US-Taiwan relationships that were disturbed by Chen's defensive referendum plan.
He said that communication between Taiwan and the US is making progress and "now the US government's concern is a `whole referendum package,' which includes the defensive referendum on March 20 and the new Constitution movement in 2006."
"The present mission for President Chen's administration is to assure the US government that neither the March 20 defensive referendum nor the future new Constitution will hurt the US' interests," he said.
He said that what the US opposes is not the referendum itself but any movement to change Taiwan's status quo.
"If the US and the entire international community understand that Taiwan must create a new Constitution because over 120 articles -- two thirds of the Constitution -- have to be amended, then they may accept that President Chen does not aim to touch on Taiwan's independence," he said.
However, if more than half the Taiwanese people ask to change Taiwan's name, territory and flag while legislating the new Constitution, Chen will follow the trend and violate his "five noes" promise, Chiou said.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
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