Premier Su Tseng-chang (
Su made the remarks at a press conference, his first time facing the press since assuming office two months ago.
Asked to comment on Ma's idea of a modus vivendi, Su said that it would not be accepted by the Chinese government.
MA'S PROPOSAL
Under his modus vivendi proposal, Ma suggested resuming negotiations with China under the so-called "1992 consensus," building a military trust mechanism, promoting a common market across the Taiwan Strait and expanding Taiwan's international participation.
Ma also said in a speech he gave in New York that the definition of "one China," the principle embedded in the so-called "1992 consensus," should be the "Republic of China."
Su praised Ma's proposal to expand Taiwan's international participation, but he said the international community would never accept the "Republic of China" as fulfilling the definition of "one China."
OLD IDEA
Su said the idea of establishing a military trust mechanism across the Strait was brought up by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) in February 2004.
"Ma's proposal of a modus vivendi is not a new idea, but it is different from Chen's remarks in terms of the insistence of Taiwan's sovereignty," Su said.
"For the Democratic Progressive Party, the nation's sovereignty cannot be discounted. But Ma's argument has blurred the nation's sovereignty," he said.
Regarding Ma's remarks that he would express opposition to China if it continued to repress Taiwan's international space, Su said he wondered "if it could be said that Ma has never felt angry about China's repression in the past?"
As for the arms procurement bill, which has been blocked in the pan-blue camp dominated legislature since mid-2004, Su urged Ma to keep his promise to support "reasonable arms procurement" and move the bill forward for discussion in the Legislative Yuan.
PUBLIC RELATIONS TRIP
"Ma's [US trip] has achieved his goal of getting his name known in the US and as a warm-up exercise [for the 2008 presidential election]," Su said.
"After Ma's return, I hope the KMT's version of the arms procurement bill will come out as soon as possible to show the nation's determination regarding self-defense," Su said.
also see story:
Ma shows true color in US speech
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