Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said yesterday that as neither unification with China nor independence are likely in the near future, Taiwan needs a "new" paradigm -- maintaining the status quo.
In an article entitled "Taiwan's Pragmatic Path" published in the Asian Wall Street Journal, Ma fleshed out the KMT's stance on the unification-independence controversy and the long-stalled arms procurement bill.
"The KMT believes that neither unification nor independence is likely for Taiwan in the foreseeable future and that therefore the status quo should be maintained. The island's [sic] future should be determined by its people, rather than the government," he wrote.
Ma criticized President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) recent Lunar New Year's Day message, in which Chen advocated abolishing the unification guidelines and pushing for another round of constitutional amendments. Ma said that Taiwan should not "rock the boat in regional waters."
"We should instead seek to advance the security and stability of the area," he said. "Taiwan, while it seeks to defuse tensions across the Taiwan Strait, should also demonstrate its determination to protect itself by maintaining adequate defensive capabilities."
In regard to the arms procurement bill, Ma called on all parties to refrain from making politically charged accusations.
"We should deal with it by weighing up four factors -- cross-strait relations, Taiwan's defensive needs, its financial capability and public opinion," he said.
In conclusion, Ma said that as opportunity and challenges exist side by side, the voyage ahead for Taiwan would be smoother and swifter with more "democracy, openness and pragmatism."
Earlier yesterday, Ma said that the KMT would not pass the arms procurement budget in April, and that after his party's version of the bill is released sometime later this month or in March, the KMT would start negotiations with other parties in the pan-blue alliance before holding discussions with the Democratic Progressive Party.
Asked to comment on his article, Ma said it had been aimed at promoting KMT policies.
"The KMT has insisted on a middle-of-the-road cross-strait policy, and I am hoping that the policy can be understood more internationally," he said after presiding over a Taipei municipal meeting.
Ma is expected to continue promoting the KMT's stance on cross-strait affairs during a 13-day trip to five European countries. Ma left Taiwan late last night to start his trip, which will see him visit Italy, Switzerland, the UK, Ireland and Belgium. He is scheduled to deliver a lecture on cross-strait relations at the London School of Economics on Monday.
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
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