Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told a press conference yesterday that as Taiwan and Tibet faced similar situations in the international community, the government should sympathize with Tibet.
“I always found it hard to understand why countries would join China in oppressing Taiwan, but now Taiwan is cooperating with China to oppress Tibet,” she said. “A president should represent the values of his people.”
Her comments came after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said on Wednesday that the Dalai Lama was not welcome to visit Taiwan.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
Ma’s comments, which contradicted remarks made in March that he would welcome the Tibetan spiritual leader, attracted strong criticism from pan-green and pan-blue politicians, who urged him to reconsider.
Meanwhile, DPP spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said the DPP would work with religious groups to invite the Dalai Lama to visit Taiwan.
Cheng said Ma spoke up for Tibet and supported the Dalai Lama during his presidential campaign, but reversed his position after being elected.
He added that Ma had yielded to Beijing, and the “people Beijing does not welcome, Ma Ying-jeou also does not welcome.”
At a separate setting, DPP Legislator Kuan Bi-Ling (管碧玲) said the DPP caucus would launch a “one person, one letter” campaign, urging every Taiwanese to send a letter to the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama based in Taiwan inviting the Dalai Lama to visit.
Also yesterday, Ma repeated his rejection of the Dalai Lama’s proposed visit, but added that he would welcome a visit “when the time is right.”
“Taiwan has been very friendly to the Dalai Lama, and he has visited Taiwan twice before. But now is not the best time for him to visit,” Ma said when meeting a delegation from the Italian parliament at the Presidential Office.
Ma made the remarks when his guests, led by Italian Senator Salvo Fleres, mentioned the Dalai Lama’s proposed visit while lauding the freedom of religion in Taiwan.
Ma said that although Taiwan welcomed religious people from all over the world, now was not the right time for the spiritual leader to visit.
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