The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will give its full support to President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) New Year's pledges, in which he resolved to protect the nation's sovereignty and offered a blueprint for the nation's development in the next two years, a top DPP official said yesterday.
Shortly after Chen made his New Year's speech yesterday morning, DPP Secretary-General Lee Yi-yang (李逸洋), speaking on behalf of the party, said that the DPP will strongly back Chen's commitments, which meet "public expectations."
Direction
"President Chen has worked out the key points of the country's new direction for the next two years, including guarding Taiwan's sovereignty, defending national security, insisting on reform and vowing to build up a government free from corruption," Lee said. "These are not only expectations of the social mainstream but are also the DPP's long-term values."
"The DPP will be united and give its full support to the president. We also hope that the people of Taiwan will recognize the president's efforts and give him encouragement," he said.
Lee said that the DPP agrees with Chen's declaration that Taiwan's sovereignty belongs to the nation's 23 million people, that Taiwanese should not assume that unification with China is inevitable and that China should not force the Taiwanese people to accept unification through non-peaceful means.
"It is a core value of democratic Taiwan that the people of Taiwan have free will to decide their future. The DPP has upheld this belief and will never give it up," Lee said.
Denying sovereignty
Lee also criticized Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chair-man Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who argues that unification with China is the ultimate goal for Taiwan and would negate Taiwan's autonomy and deny its sovereignty.
"We really regret Ma's pro-China stance. It is unacceptable that Ma takes China's side on unification and treats it as the only choice for Taiwan," Lee said.
Lee also promised that the DPP would remold itself and do its best to regain public trust in the party's integrity.
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taitung County is to launch charter flights to Malaysia at the end of this year, after setting up flights to Vietnam and Thailand, the Taitung County Government said yesterday. The new charter flight services, provided by low-cost carrier Batik Air Malaysia, would be part of five-day tour packages for visits to Taitung County or Malaysia. The Batik Air charter flight, with about 200 seats, would take Malaysian tourists to Taitung on Dec. 30 and then at 12:35pm return to Kuala Lumpur with Taiwanese tourists. Another charter flight would bring the Taiwanese home on Jan. 3 next year, arriving at 5:30pm, before taking the
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during