Senior government officials said yesterday that Taiwan has no intention to provoke China in response to Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's (李顯龍) comment that war could break out if Taiwan moves toward independence.
In his National Day Rally speech on Sunday, the new Singapore leader, who visited Taiwan from July 10 to 13 as deputy prime minister, described the cross-strait situation as "potentially the most dangerous problem" in the region.
PHOTO: CHIEN RONG-FENG, TAIPEI TIMES
Presidential Office Secretary-General Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said Taiwan always holds "good will and a practical attitude" in handling cross-strait relations. With its constitutional re-engineering project, Taiwan is avoiding provocative issues such as sovereignty and territorial changes, he added.
President Chen Shui-bian (
"In contrast, China continues expanding its military and lashes out with harsh words against Taiwan. [These actions] may cause cross-strait conflicts," Su said.
Su responded cautiously to Lee's remarks that "Singapore would not support Taiwan if the latter provoked a cross-strait conflict."
"Lee is very careful about what he says ... We need to check out what he actually said. The media might have missed some of his words," he said.
According to the Straits Times, Lee said: "If Taiwan goes for independence, Singapore will not recognize it. In fact, no Asian country will recognize it. Nor will European countries."
Su, who received Lee upon his arrival at Taiwan last month, said the Singapore leader showed himself a "sincere and practical" man by risking China's anger to travel to Taiwan.
Lee held several in-depth talks with Chen and met other leaders during his visit.
"The first-hand information he obtained here should be helpful for him to lead his nation," Su added.
As for Lee's criticism politicians in Taiwan are preoccupied with domestic politics and that the Taiwanese media generally has a parochial outlook, Su said he took these words as "advice from a good friend."
"Lee's remarks reflected his overall observations about Taiwan-ese society and political parties. If what he said is true, we should amend our mistakes. If not, we should encourage ourselves to do better," Su said.
The Taiwanese media spends too much coverage on domestic stories, such as suicides and fires, but cares little about international news, Su added.
"This is not right," he said. "We live in a global village. Lee's comments make good sense. We should seriously reflect on ourselves."
Calling Lee "a good friend of Taiwan," Su declined to say whether Lee, whose visit to Taiwan left Bei-jing fuming, sought to curry China's favor through his speech.
"Lee made these comments because of pressure from China. He has to say something to clarify his stance. Everybody knows he has to do so," Minister of Foreign Affairs Mark Chen (
No other country is more peace loving than Taiwan, the minister said. Taiwan does not have offensive weapons. Taiwan merely has defensive weapons and it will never take the initiative to provoke other countries, he added.
Chen said the degree of Singapore's democratization is different from that of Taiwan.
"In Taiwan we have multi-party politics. We do understand why Lee made such comments," he said.
A total lunar eclipse coinciding with the Lantern Festival on March 3 would be Taiwan’s most notable celestial event this year, the Taipei Astronomical Museum said, urging skywatchers not to miss it. There would be four eclipses worldwide this year — two solar eclipses and two lunar eclipses — the museum’s Web site says. Taiwan would be able to observe one of the lunar eclipses in its entirety on March 3. The eclipse would be visible as the moon rises at 5:50pm, already partly shaded by the Earth’s shadow, the museum said. It would peak at about 7:30pm, when the moon would
DEFENSE: The US should cancel the US visas or green cards of relatives of KMT and TPP lawmakers who have been blocking the budget, Grant Newsham said A retired US Marine Corps officer has suggested canceling the US green cards and visas of relatives of opposition Taiwanese lawmakers who have been stalling the review of a proposed NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.7 billion) special defense budget. The Executive Yuan has proposed the budget for major weapons purchases over eight years, from this year to 2033. However, opposition lawmakers have refused to review the proposal, demanding that President William Lai (賴清德) first appear before the Legislative Yuan to answer questions about the proposed budget. On Thursday last week, 37 bipartisan US lawmakers sent a letter to Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), the heads
A New York-based NGO has launched a global initiative to rename the nation’s overseas missions, most of which operate under the name "Taipei," to "Taiwan Representative Office (TRO)," according to a news release. Ming Chiang (江明信), CEO of Hello Taiwan, announced the campaign at a news conference in Berlin on Monday, coinciding with the World Forum held from Monday through Wednesday, the institution stated in the release. Speaking at the event, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Jie (黃捷) said she believed this renaming campaign would enable the international community to see Taiwan
Two siblings in their 70s were injured yesterday when they opened a parcel and it exploded, police in Yilan said, adding the brother and sister were both in stable condition. The two siblings, surnamed Hung (洪), had received the parcel two days earlier but did not open it until yesterday, the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday in Taiwan, police said. Chen Chin-cheng (陳金城), head of the Yilan County Government Police Bureau, said the package bore no postmark or names and was labeled only with the siblings’ address. Citing the findings of a
RSS