The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday that a slump in Taiwan’s overall competitiveness and the loss of sovereignty are the products of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) first year in office.
DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) told a press conference yesterday that Taiwan’s competitiveness had slipped 10 places from 13th to 23rd in this year’s International Institute for Management Development (IMD) World Competitiveness Yearbook, a slump she pinned on the Ma administration’s poor performance.
“In the last year, Ma has emphasized China, but forgot about the rest of the world. He and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) conducted secret negotiations with China and Taiwan’s World Health Assembly (WHA) bid is a good example of that,” Tsai said.
She added that Ma had refused to tell the nation what price Taiwan had paid in return for attending the WHA.
Ma also refused to say whether he recognized the memorandum of understanding (MOU) the WHO signed with Beijing in 2005 to limit Taiwan’s participation in the organization. The memorandum says Taiwan’s involvement in the WHO must be approved by Beijing and that all communication between Taiwan and the WHO must go through China.
“Taiwan is participating in the WHA with a sub-sovereign status, or on a par with a non-governmental organization,” Tsai said. “We insist upon Taiwan’s sovereignty 100 percent, but Ma does not consider Taiwan a sovereign nation, so it is not strange that he believes he has not given away any sovereignty.”
Ma had challenged the DPP in a press conference on Tuesday to produce concrete evidence that he had jeopardized Taiwan’s sovereignty.
“Ma’s government can not carry on attributing his government’s failure to the former DPP administration. If he always shifts the responsibility to the former DPP government, I don’t know how this president can lead us forward,” she said.
“Ma said he wants to talk with me now so he can look like he is listening to the complaints raised during Sunday’s rally,” she said.
“But if Ma persists with such talk, I don’t know what the basis for our conversation would be,” Tsai said, referring to the invitation she received to talk with the president.
Tsai said she did not want Ma to raise the same issues again and again. The Presidential Office must offer a concrete agenda for the meeting before she would consider talking to Ma, she said.
Tsai has said she wants a public debate with Ma on significant national policies, not a meeting that would have the effect of endorsing his policies.
Meanwhile, the DPP caucus yesterday told a press conference that the net result of Ma’s first year in office was the “total sell out of Taiwan.”
DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said the caucus evaluated Ma’s performance and it could be summed up as: “Ruling the country with tricks, selling Taiwan out, presiding over an economic recession, setting back democracy, attempting to establish an authoritarian regime and wanting to complete his goal of eventual unification with China.”
Also See: Taiwan drops in IMD rankings
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
The National Museum of Taiwan Literature is next month to hold an exhibition in Osaka, Japan, showcasing the rich and unique history of Taiwanese folklore and literature. The exhibition, which is to run from Aug. 10 to Aug. 20 at the city’s Central Public Hall, is part of the “We Taiwan” at Expo 2025 series, highlighting Taiwan’s cultural ties with the international community, National Museum of Taiwan Literature director Chen Ying-fang (陳瑩芳) said. Folklore and literature, among Taiwan’s richest cultural heritages, naturally deserve a central place in the global dialogue, Chen said. Taiwan’s folklore would be immediately apparent at the entrance of the
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
RSS