President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen made the remarks in a two-hour interview with SET last night.
"The US wanted me to use my influence as the president to stop [the DPP's push for] the proposed referendum," he said.
Saying that a number of polls had indicated that the majority of Taiwanese voters were in favor of holding the referendum, Chen said he could not go against the public opinion, which is what he told the US.
"The US is Taiwan's good friend and Taiwan is a loyal ally of the US...but we need to safeguard Taiwan's interests as well, which revolve around the continuation and pursuit of democracy and exercising universal human rights," he said.
When asked what the result of his refusal to accede to the US' wishes might be, Chen gave an indirect response, saying that if Taiwan wanted China to be happy, "we might as well surrender."
"But when I told [the US] that, the US said `no,'" he said.
Chen said that he had told the US that, Taiwan might as well scrap its defense and foreign affairs and let Taiwan "become part of the People's Republic of China."
"But the US told me `no,' too," Chen said.
When asked whether he was trying to change the name of the country officially from Republic of China (ROC) to Taiwan, Chen said the UN bid had nothing to do with it.
"At least 40 percent of UN members are not using their official country names when participating in the UN. Our official name is still ROC, but we are trying to join the UN with a shorter name. That is all," Chen said.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
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