President Chen Shui-bian (
While delivering the opening speech for the 2005 Leaping Forward Workshop for Association Leaders, organized by the Institute of Democracy which is associated with DPP, Chen said that, when facing diverse issues, he had adopted a mindset that would allow him to both reconcile with stakeholders, while also maintaining an unflinching attitude that ensured a firm stance.
Similarly, when facing speculation on potential candidates in the DPP to succeed him, Chen said he employed the same attitude.
"A real leader cannot be designated in advance. A leader will be naturally recognized based on his or her long-term accomplishments rather than short-term speculation in political circles," Chen said.
Chen said that flexibility has to be kept in mind when dealing with both domestic matters and diplomatic affairs.
"Before leaping higher and farther, you have to squat lower to gather the energy you need. The strategy is about flexibility and nimbleness," Chen said.
Taking cross-strait relations as an example, Chen said that at many critical moments in the past, Taiwan had adopted flexible and practical strategies to deal with China's interference with Taiwan's participation in the international community, enabling the nation's interests to be defended.
"That's why Taiwan became the 144th member of the World Trade Organization and was also able to take part in activities run by the World Health Organization," Chen said.
Chen added that the pleasant atmosphere during cross-strait flights for the Lunar New Year holidays had quickly been destroyed by China's passage of its "Anti-Secession" Law aimed at blocking any moves toward Taiwanese independence.
Chen said that China's luring in of leaders of opposition parties in Taiwan months ago and its recent offer of tariff-free imports for some Taiwanese fruit were tricks aimed at dividing the Taiwanese people.
"However, the Taiwanese government ruled by the DPP continues to adopt cautious, practical and rational strategies to maintain a state of equilibrium ensuring both democracy in Taiwan and cross-strait peace," Chen said.
Meanwhile, Chen said he would also like to adopt an open mindset to smooth relations between the DPP and opposition parties.
"I'd like to reconcile and start a rational dialogue with opposition parties, without calculating political interests," Chen said.
Chen was accompanied by Premier Frank Hsieh (
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching