The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday celebrated the 22nd anniversary of its founding with a low-key get-together and a grassroots approach.
The theme of the celebration “Taiwan Cannot Be Without You,” started off with a fun fair held at Taipei’s Yuanshan Park in the afternoon and an informal rally held at Taipei’s Zhongshan Soccer Stadium last night.
Addressing the crowd, DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said the nation needs a strong DPP to supervise the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government, adding that DPP legislators would continue to keep the government and its China-leaning policies in check.
PHOTO: CNA
“Taiwan’s sovereign status has been in danger under the KMT administration and its China-leaning policies have become a nightmare,” Tsai said. “The DPP’s mission is to lead the public to defend Taiwan’s sovereign status.”
Tsai added that the DPP must seek strength from the public and transform itself into a “reasonable, assertive and practical party.”
The party’s 22nd anniversary was overshadowed by the alleged money laundering case surrounding one of its former chairmen — former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Prosecutors are investigating whether any portion of Chen’s “state affairs fund” had been wired to the overseas bank accounts of his family members during his eight-year presidency. Chen has claimed his innocence, insisting that funds from the “state affairs fund” were used for six secret diplomatic missions and that none of the money lined his own pocket.
While calling on supporters to view the case reasonably, Tsai also called on judicial agencies to maintain their independence and not politicize the case.
Chen did not take part in the party’s anniversary celebration in Taipei yesterday. Instead, he was in his hometown in Tainan County meeting with local supporters.
Chen started off his speech wishing the DPP a happy 22nd anniversary. He then condemned the KMT and prosecutors for oppressing him and said he could be sent to jail by prosecutors soon.
“This could be the last time I meet with you before the KMT and prosecutors send me to Tucheng Detention Center,” Chen said.
Saying that his case was not a purely judicial case but had become political persecution, Chen said that in service to the ideal of Taiwanese independence he was willing to be the first political prisoner under the administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MO YAN-CHIH
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
RSS