Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) yesterday told lawmakers that amending the Constitution should not be carried out in haste because it is a big project that concerns all the people.
"We should not forget that China has never renounced its intention to take Taiwan using force. To recognize ourselves as a nation and make ourselves stronger should be our focus instead of [amending the Constitution]," Su said. "We should not make any changes to the Constitution without first consulting the general public, the Taiwanese people."
The premier made the remarks while addressing the legislature yesterday morning. His words came in response to a question from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴), who asked Su for his comments on President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) "second republic" proposal -- to amend the Constitution and announce Taiwan an independent country.
Chen mentioned the idea at the 80th birthday celebrations of former presidential adviser Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) last Sunday evening.
At the party, Chen also cited Koo's 1996 article entitled "Establishing A Country of Our Own," in which Koo wrote that Taiwanese should establish a country by using the nation's "sorrowful history" as the "backbone" in order to rebuild people's confidence. Chen said that establishing an independent country was his dream and resolution.
Su also told lawmakers it was his belief that it would not be easy to secure the public's consent to amend the Constitution at this moment because the issue concerns the relationship between Taiwan, China and the US.
"As premier, I have never tried to stop anybody talking about amending the Constitution. We accept different voices. But personally, I am the premier of the Republic of China and it is not appropriate for me to comment on the issue. That will not change," Su said.
The premier also reminded lawmakers not to forget about the ever present threat posed by China.
"They [the Chinese government] will never give up trying to make us part of them. We should recognize ourselves as a country and do our best to defend ourselves even though we have never considered ourselves as being their enemy," Su said.
New Party Legislator Wu Cherng-dean (吳成典) challenged the premier and said that Taiwan cannot continue to treat China as the enemy because Taiwan's development definitely concerns China.
"There will be a lot of advantages for us if we can handle the cross-strait relationship well," he said.
The premier said that being careful was the bottom line to handling China.
"There are still lots of different ways for [China] to annex us," Su said. "We cannot provide them with them any opportunities."
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods