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.
The first two F-16V Bock 70 jets purchased from the US are expected to arrive in Taiwan around Double Ten National Day, which is on Oct. 10, a military source said yesterday. Of the 66 F-16V Block 70 jets purchased from the US, the first completed production in March, the source said, adding that since then three jets have been produced per month. Although there were reports of engine defects, the issue has been resolved, they said. After the jets arrive in Taiwan, they must first pass testing by the air force before they would officially become Taiwan’s property, they said. The air force
GLOBAL: Although Matsu has limited capacity for large numbers of domestic tourists, it would be a great high-end destination for international travelers, an official said Lienchiang County’s (Matsu) unique landscape and Cold War history give it great potential to be marketed as a destination for international travelers, Tourism Administration Director General Chen Yu-hsiu (陳玉秀) said at the weekend. Tourism officials traveled to the outlying island for the Matsu Biennial, an art festival that started on Friday to celebrate Matsu’s culture, history and landscape. Travelers to Matsu, which lies about 190km northwest of Taipei, must fly or take the state-run New Taima passenger ship. However, flights are often canceled during fog season from April to June. Chen spoke about her vision to promote Matsu as a tourist attraction in
PAWSITIVE IMPACT: A shop owner said that while he adopted cats to take care of rodents, they have also attracted younger visitors who also buy his dried goods In Taipei’s Dadaocheng (大稻埕), cats lounging in shops along Dihua Street do more than nap amid the scent of dried seafood. Many have become beloved fixtures who double as photography models, attracting visitors and helping boost sales in one of the capital’s most historic quarters. A recent photo contest featuring more than a dozen shop cats drew more than 2,200 submissions, turning everyday cat-spotting into a friendly competition that attracted amateur and professional photographers. “It’s rare to see cats standing, so when it suddenly did, it felt like a lucky cat,” said Sabrina Hsu (徐淳蔚), who won the NT$10,000 top prize in
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
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