Holding a referendum simultaneously with national elections next year will be a significant test of the nation's democracy and a good opportunity to show the world the resolve of Taiwanese people, President Chen Shui-bian (
"In less than a year, we will have two national elections -- the legislative and the presidential. They are likely to be held in conjunction with several referendums," he said.
Chen was referring to the referendum campaigns initiated by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
The DPP has been gathering signatures to petition for a referendum on reclaiming the KMT's "stolen assets" and applying for UN membership under the name "Taiwan."
To counter the DPP's moves, the KMT has proposed holding a referendum on recovering the resources "seized" by the DPP administration and on opening direct sea and air links with China.
Chen made the remarks while addressing a military promotion ceremony in Taipei yesterday morning.
The ceremony, held twice a year, saw nine majors-general promoted to the rank of lieutenant-general and vice admiral, and 33 colonels and captains made major-generals and rear admirals. The promotions will take effect next month.
Yesterday's ceremony carried special significance because the statues of dictator Chiang Kai-shek (
The president added that starting on Sunday, the "articles of faith" guiding the nation's armed forces would be reduced to three from five.
The five articles were: doctrine, leadership, nation, responsibility and honor. From next month, these will be reduced to just three -- nation, responsibility and honor.
The move is a significant step in the nationalization of the armed forces and marks a milestone in Taiwan's deepening democracy, Chen said.
Criticizing the articles of "doctrine" and "leadership" as the former authoritarian regime's scheme to develop a personality cult, the president said that turning the armed forces into an army that served a certain party and individual not only ran counter to the principles of democracy, but also prevented the country from becoming a free, democratic and normal republic.
Since he was elected president in 2000, Chen said he had worked to nationalize the armed forces and turn them into a force that protects the people and the country.
"In a democracy, we have zero tolerance of military interference in politics," he said.
"Nor do we want to see politics and elections affect the regular training and management of the armed forces," he said.
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
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