President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday expressed his confidence in the country’s ability to survive the financial crisis and urged Taiwanese to transcend their differences while working together to overcome the difficulties.
“I know that people are suffering from the slow economy, but Taiwan will remain a promising place as long as Taiwanese don’t give up,” Ma said while addressing the 2008 National Prayer Breakfast in Taiwan at the Taipei International Convention Center.
“With the wisdom and fighting spirit of its people, I believe the country will survive the financial crisis,” he said.
Speaking about social change and the transformation of the country, Ma referred to the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American US president and called on Taiwanese to coexist.
“We can be different and still get along harmoniously,” he said.
Ma promised to answer people’s expectations by establishing a clean government and pushing for a peaceful cross-strait relationship.
Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who declined Ma’s invitation for a meeting to discuss national issues and confrontations between the blue and green camps, also attended the event.
Although Ma shook hands with Tsai immediately after arriving at the event, the two, who were at the same table, did not exchange words.
Ma and Tsai declined to comment on whether they would hold a meeting.
Addressing the opening ceremony of IT Month at the Taipei World Trade Center later yesterday, Ma said he was confident in the country’s economic outlook, adding that the government is determined to overcome the financial crisis.
Referring to publications such as Business Week and The Economist, Ma said that Taiwan continued to be very competitive globally in the IT industry and called on the public to have faith in the country’s economic strength.
“We have no reason to be pessimistic,” Ma said.
“In these difficult economic times, we must complete the necessary reforms [so that we can] rise when the economy recovers,” he said.
The president defended the Cabinet’s policies to issue consumer vouchers and subsidize unemployed citizens, and vowed to lead the country out of the financial crisis with “speedy, substantial and sustainable” policies.
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:
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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