More than 25,000 overseas Taiwanese supporting President Chen Shui-bian's (
Wu Li-pei (
Speaking at the Democratic Progressive Party's headquarters yesterday, Wu, also the chairman of the Los Angeles-based Formosa Foundation, said the reason for the increase in the number of Taiwanese expatriates returning home to vote is because they are anxious about the upcoming poll and feel the election signifies whether Taiwan's local power can take root or face the consequence of undermining Taiwan's independent sovereignty.
"We feel it is utterly urgent to re-elect Chen, because if he loses, Taiwan will probably not be able to choose its own president anymore, but will have to accept an appointed chief of the special administrative zone, like that of Hong Kong," Wu said.
"China is getting more and more powerful, and it's hard to predict what will happen in the future," Wu added.
Accompanied by other campaign representatives from Canada, Japan, Latin America and Australia in the press conference, Wu said around 5,000 overseas Taiwanese have returned home to volunteer in the campaign activities island-wide for Chen, and the Global A-bian Family has already produced two campaign TV commercials broadcasting in local TV channels to stump for Chen.
Wu said "originally we thought all we needed to do was to continue campaigning for Chen abroad after his victory in 2000. However, this time we found the opponents are ambitious to bring back authoritarianism to our democratic society."
"Therefore, we feel obligated to come back and support Taiwan's democratic development and to protect Taiwan's independent sovereignty from being undermined by China," Wu said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard