President Chen Shui-bian (
"Every Taiwanese person has the obligation and right to express his or her voice at the crucial moment -- the presidential election and Taiwan's first ever referendum -- and we must let the international community understand our stance: Taiwan does not want missiles, we want to say `No' to China," Lee said during a rally last night in Taichuang County.
`ridiculous'
"While we advocate opposing China's missiles and military threats, they [the pan-blue camp] just advocate opposing the referendum," Lee said.
Lee also said the most ridiculous part of the campaign is that the heads of the "black gold" faction, the Chinese Nationalist Party's [KMT] Chairman Lien Chan (
"Can you believe it?" Lee said.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) held huge campaign rallies last night in central Taiwan, including Taichung and Changhua counties.
Lee and Chen joined together to urge voters to make the referendum a success and re-elect Chen, bringing the rally to a climax.
Many DPP grassroots politicians reminded the public that since Chen took power in 2000, his government has made extraordinary achievements in improving the infrastructure of the greater Taichung area, something which the former KMT government failed to achieve during its decades in power.
Urging voters not to be affected by fugitive tycoon Chen Yu-hao's (
"Chen Yu-hao has become the pan-blue camp's top weapon. It is unbelievable that the KMT uses this fugitive, who left hundreds of millions of dallars of debt in Taiwan and stole money to invest in China, as its campaign manager," said DPP Legislator Lin Feng-his (
COUNTERATTACK
"We must appeal to Taiwanese people that Taiwan's democracy must win, now the country can never allow the return of `black gold,'" President Chen said last night.
He stressed that Chen Yu-hao's accusations against his family were just a counterattack by "black gold" culprits who expect a KMT victory to help them escape punishments.
"This is the cost that we pay to eradicate black gold," Chen said.
Earlier yesterday, Chen lead a motorcade rally through Pingtung County. Standing in the back of a jeep, Chen was greeted by enthusiastic supporters who waved green flags and placards along the roads and received the hails of "A-Bian, get elected."
Alain Robert, known as the "French Spider-Man," praised Alex Honnold as exceptionally well-prepared after the US climber completed a free solo ascent of Taipei 101 yesterday. Robert said Honnold's ascent of the 508m-tall skyscraper in just more than one-and-a-half hours without using safety ropes or equipment was a remarkable achievement. "This is my life," he said in an interview conducted in French, adding that he liked the feeling of being "on the edge of danger." The 63-year-old Frenchman climbed Taipei 101 using ropes in December 2004, taking about four hours to reach the top. On a one-to-10 scale of difficulty, Robert said Taipei 101
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