Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers yesterday delivered a tirade against Japan and the US, calling on the public to get behind the "defensive referendum" proposed by President Chen Shui-bian (
"While the US government doesn't have the guts to stand up to China, we Taiwanese people must stick together and do it for ourselves," DPP Legislator Tang Huo-shen (湯火聖) said. "We want to tell the US, Japan and the rest of the world that we want the defensive referendum and we want it for the sake of self-defense, nothing else."
Tang, speaking at a press conference yesterday morning, also upbraided the US for its unilateralism.
"A volley of opposition recently expressed by US officials, including US President George W. Bush and US Secretary of State Colin Powell, has highlighted one thing: that is, the US government cares about nothing but its own national interest. It couldn't care less about us," Tang said.
Since the US has already benefited from Taiwan politically, commercially and militarily, Tang said, Taiwan's national interest means little to the US.
"Why bother to care so much about the opinions of such a selfish friend?" Tang said.
Likening the battle over the referendum to the War of Independence, another DPP lawmaker, Su Chih-fen (蘇治芬), questioned the US government's commitment to democracy.
"I'm very curious to know why the American people can be their own lord and master but we can't," Su said.
While the nation was thrilled about the passage of the Referendum Law (
"Is this the democratic value they claim to take pride in and embrace?" Su asked.
DPP Legislator Kuo Jung-chung (
"They thought the defensive referendum was bound to fail because it lacks the support of such superpowers as Japan and the US. What they overlook here, however, is the power of the people," Kuo said.
"We want to tell the world this time around that we refuse to be a watch dog obsequiously wagging its tail before its master," Kuo said.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS