Vice President Annette Lu (
"It's a shameful and regrettable matter" that Chirac expressed opposition to the referendum plan and in favor of Beijing simply out of monetary considerations, Lu said.
PHOTO: AFP
"Beijing has enticed Chirac to issue unfavorable remarks on Tai-wan's referendum plan by offering lucrative business opportunities that may arise from the 2008 Bei-jing Olympics and by promising to purchase French weapons," Lu said at a campaign rally in Taoyuan County.
Lu made the statement two days after Chirac warned Taiwan at a state dinner in honor of visiting Chinese President Hu Jintao (
Noting that Chirac's opposition to the referendum initiative goes against the France's founding spirit of upholding freedom and democracy, Lu said all the people of Taiwan should stand up and condemn Chirac.
She also urged all countries to respect and support Taiwan's democratic development.
Lu said Taiwan would not flinch under China's pressure nor be swayed from its determination to hold its first-ever referendum -- against Beijing's missile threat -- to coincide with the March 20 presidential election.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said during a televised interview on Tuesday night that Chirac's linking Taiwan's referendum with a move toward independence which would ultimately lead to war reflected the French leader's ignorance about democracy and undermined the integrity of a democratic France.
"It is understandable that Chirac made such remarks because France has business ties with China," Chen said.
"However if Chirac, like China, treated the universal values of a referendum as something dreadful and compared it to a move toward Taiwan's independence and war, then he is rather ignorant about democracy," Chen said.
The president said that "Taiwan is Taiwan and it is not a place where France has a say in deciding our business."
"It might not cost anything for him [Chirac] to say so, but it does huge damage to France. It's really a pity," Chen said.
The director of the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) international affairs department, Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), yesterday said the French leader's remarks have seriously interfered with Taiwan's internal democratic procedures and were a result of China's attempt to use other countries to suppress Taiwan through the promise of weapons purchases.
"Until China denounces the use of force against Taiwan, any countries that sell weapons to China should be [held] responsible for destabilizing peace and regional stability," Hsiao said.
Noting that France had experienced a revolution and even gave the US the Statue of Liberty, a symbol China's young Tiananmen demonstrators used in 1989, Hsiao said France should promote this democratic tradition if it deems itself a democratic nation.
"If France believes itself a democratic nation, it should not just sell weapons to China, but should export freedom, democracy and another statute of liberty to China," Hsiao said.
In related news yesterday, DPP Legislator Chen Chi-mai (
The lawmaker called upon France to export democracy, not weapons.
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
IN FULL SWING: Recall drives against lawmakers in Hualien, Taoyuan and Hsinchu have reached the second-stage threshold, the campaigners said Campaigners in a recall petition against Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Yen Kuan-heng (顏寬恒) in Taichung yesterday said their signature target is within sight, and that they need a big push to collect about 500 more signatures from locals to reach the second-stage threshold. Recall campaigns against KMT lawmakers Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Yang Chiung-ying (楊瓊瓔) and Lo Ting-wei (羅廷瑋) are also close to the 10 percent threshold, and campaigners are mounting a final push this week. They need about 800 signatures against Chiang and about 2,000 against Yang. Campaigners seeking to recall Lo said they had reached the threshold figure over the
RSS