Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday urged opposition politicians not to obsequiously flatter the Chinese government with their criticism of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), reminding them that "the Chinese Communists' minor enemies always end up miserable."
"Today, everybody tries their best to make friends with the Chinese government as fast as they can, making it a political priority. This is not wise," Hsieh said.
"What they do now will gradually destroy the balance between Beijing and Taipei and I am afraid that Beijing will eventually become the master controller when it comes to the cross-strait relationship," he said.
The premier made his comments at the Legislative Yuan after hearing that Beijing plans to treat Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) "as a president" when he visits China.
Hsieh told lawmakers that the law stipulates that any private party, including retired presidents or other government officials, politicians or political leaders, have to talk to the government before they carry out a trip to China such as KMT Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kun's (江丙坤) visit so they know what the bottom line is.
However, nobody cares about the law, Hsieh said.
"We must understand that the Chinese government will never gave up humiliating us and trying to make the world believe that there is no such country called Taiwan. Under these circumstances, everybody should follow and respect the laws made by the legislature because the laws can protect us," he said.
As for Chiang being investigated by Taiwan High Court prosecutors, Hsieh said he would not comment on the investigation and would leave prosecutors to carry out their jobs.
He, however, reminded his fellow politicians that the Chinese Communists have never given their "minor enemies" happy endings.
Before the Chinese civil war, the KMT was the communists' major enemy, he said, and the communists united with their "minor enemies" to kick the KMT out of China. All those "minor enemies" who helped the communists were eventually repudiated during the Cultural Revolution, he said.
"We shall not let history repeat itself," Hsieh said.
"Whenever we want to deal with the Chinese government we should first ask ourselves `Is this going to jeopardize my fellow Taiwanese?'" he said. "Do not take any further steps if the answer is no or if you are unsure of the answer."
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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