The Presidential Office yesterday said it hoped the international community would respect the country's judicial procedures and trust its democratic foundations, for which the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and thousands of people had fought for decades.
"We hope the international community can understand that the requests made by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
"Some foreign media said that Taiwan's government rejected the pan-blue camp's requests. That is not correct. The government cannot violate the constitutional mechanism, which will just hurt the country's legal system," Wu said.
Wu said that the opposition alliance had a right to launch legal proceedings against the result of the presidential election, but added that the pan-blue camp's leaders should stop its supporters' irrational actions.
"Taiwan's democratic achievements have been credited by the international community, and the international media have praised past elections for being fair and just," Wu said.
"The approach the pan-blue camp is taking right now shows a lack of confidence in Taiwan's judiciary and is reminiscent of how it manipulated the legal system under the previous KMT government," he said.
The pan-blue camp's strategy of neither accepting the election result nor trusting the judicial processes has harmed the country's democratic reputation, Wu said.
"For the time being we must tolerate any provocative actions and just keep calm to prevent any possible conflict between our supporters and the protesters from the pan-blue camp," Wu said.
He also reminded the international community that the pan-blue camp had failed to present any concrete evidence for its accusation of vote-rigging and said that Lien might not be able to end the protests rationally.
"It is easy to call on people to protest in the streets, but it is difficult to call off the demonstrations peacefully," Wu said.
According to an anonymous DPP source, top aides to the president called an emergency meeting after Lien announced that he did not accept the election result and was hoping to have it annulled.
"We realized that this was an unhappy victory, because there would be an emotional reaction from the losers," the aide said yesterday.
"Three steps are necessary to deal with the challenge: First, to prevent any form of conflict; Second, to resolve the event in accordance with judicial processes, which may take months, and finally, President Chen has to personally heal the divisions between ethnic communities," the aide said.
SHIPS, TRAINS AND AUTOMOBILES: The ministry has announced changes to varied transportation industries taking effect soon, with a number of effects for passengers Beginning next month, the post office is canceling signature upon delivery and written inquiry services for international registered small packets in accordance with the new policy of the Universal Postal Union, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The new policy does not apply to packets that are to be delivered to China, the ministry said. Senders of international registered small packets would receive a NT$10 rebate on postage if the packets are sent from Jan. 1 to March 31, it added. The ministry said that three other policies are also scheduled to take effect next month. International cruise ship operators
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday launched a gift box to market honey “certified by a Formosan black bear” in appreciation of a beekeeper’s amicable interaction with a honey-thieving bear. Beekeeper Chih Ming-chen (池明鎮) in January inspected his bee farm in Hualien County’s Jhuosi Township (卓溪) and found that more than 20 beehives had been destroyed and many hives were eaten, with bear droppings and paw prints near the destroyed hives, the agency said. Chih returned to the farm to move the remaining beehives away that evening when he encountered a Formosan black bear only 20m away, the agency said. The bear
Chinese embassy staffers attempted to interrupt an award ceremony of an international tea competition in France when the organizer introduced Taiwan and displayed the Republic of China flag, a Taiwanese tea farmer said in an interview published today. Hsieh Chung-lin (謝忠霖), chief executive of Juxin Tea Factory from Taichung's Lishan (梨山) area, on Dec. 2 attended the Teas of the World International Contest held at the Peruvian embassy in Paris. Hsieh was awarded a special prize for his Huagang Snow Source Tea by the nonprofit Agency for the Valorization of Agricultural Products (AVPA). During the ceremony, two Chinese embassy staffers in attendance
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