People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
Su was commenting on Soong's remarks in a speech delivered at Tsinghua University in Beijing earlier in the day. Soong said that Taiwan independence is a dead-end and should never be an option.
Noting that Soong is visiting China in his capacity as PFP head, Su said Soong does not have the right to "make any decision on behalf of the people of Taiwan during his China journey."
"The people of Taiwan are entitled to all kinds of options for their future. No option should be ruled out arbitrarily. Independence is an option. Soong himself can oppose Taiwan independence, but he is not entitled to rule out this option on behalf of Taiwan's people," Su said.
The Cabinet yesterday echoed this view, affirming the PFP chairman's efforts to promote Taiwan's economic experience, but adding that the PFP's policy does not represent all the people of Taiwan.
"Taiwan is a democratic country. Everybody has the right to speak out, no matter what kind of voice it will be. So do political parties," Cabinet spokesman Cho Jung-tai (
"But any individual political party's voice cannot represent Taiwan's 23 million people," Cho said.
Cho made the remarks at a press conference held after the weekly Cabinet meeting yesterday morning.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
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