People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) last night supported Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) contention that the result of the election should be declared invalid.
"Taiwan's democracy is the most effective weapon to resist the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). If we Taiwanese destroyed this weapon on our own, what other defensive weapons do we have [to counter the CCP]?" Soong yelled to supporters gathering at the KMT-PFP alliance's campaign headquarters after the election result was announced last night.
Soong accused the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) of cheating in counting votes and urged everyone to support Lien's decision.
"This unfair election was full of doubtful points. This unfair election let us see clearly the political manipulations from the very beginning of campaigning to the end of the election," Soong said
"I believe everyone knows what I am talking about," he said.
Soong said that he believed that people who support the KMT-PFP alliance are people who are moderate and rational and are confident about Taiwan's democracy. He urged supporters to support Lien's allegations and make their voices heard calmly and rationally, telling the whole world that Taiwan's election was unjust.
Hundreds of thousands of the pan-blue camp's supporters reacted to Soong with cheers and chants. The deafening noise and clamor brought the audience's emotions to a peak.
"The unjust election will not bring the people of Taiwan a real stable life," Soong said.
"Only when we Taiwanese tell the world that we want a true democracy will the world respect us," he said.
"We don't want a unfair election, do we?" Soong yelled.
Although he did not recognize the results announced last night, he said yesterday morning after casting his ballot that Taiwan's democracy would be deepened after the presidential election.
Soong confirmed that the people of Taiwan showed their composure and reasonableness when facing the shooting of President Chen Shui-bian (
Soong said that the KMT-PFP alliance's decision to cancel its massive campaign rallies on Friday showed its true democratic attitude, which was worthy of being praised by people and the international society.
Soong added that it is a true performance of democracy that people can decide on their own whether to vote in the referendum. Soong and his wife and daughter did not vote in the referendum, which was held simultaneously with the election.
A small number of Taiwanese this year lost their citizenship rights after traveling in China and obtaining a one-time Chinese passport to cross the border into Russia, a source said today. The people signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of neighboring Russia with companies claiming they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, the source said on condition of anonymity. The travelers were actually issued one-time-use Chinese passports, they said. Taiwanese are prohibited from holding a Chinese passport or household registration. If found to have a Chinese ID, they may lose their resident status under Article 9-1
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
PROBLEMATIC APP: Citing more than 1,000 fraud cases, the government is taking the app down for a year, but opposition voices are calling it censorship Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday decried a government plan to suspend access to Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu (小紅書) for one year as censorship, while the Presidential Office backed the plan. The Ministry of the Interior on Thursday cited security risks and accusations that the Instagram-like app, known as Rednote in English, had figured in more than 1,700 fraud cases since last year. The company, which has about 3 million users in Taiwan, has not yet responded to requests for comment. “Many people online are already asking ‘How to climb over the firewall to access Xiaohongshu,’” Cheng posted on
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake yesterday struck off the coast of Hualien, causing brief transportation disruptions in northern and eastern Taiwan, as authorities said that aftershocks of magnitude 5 or higher could occur over the next three days. The quake, which hit at 7:24pm at a depth of 24.5km, registered an intensity of 4 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. In Taipei, the MRT railway’s operations control center received an earthquake alert and initiated standard safety procedures, briefly halting trains on the Bannan (blue) line for about a minute.
RSS