Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday urged the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to pay more attention to national security issues amid the recent military exercises by the US and to draw up a comprehensive global strategy for Taiwan by 2012.
Lu said the US’ recent military exercises were aimed at strengthening its ties with Asian countries and joining them to resist China’s military buildup in the Taiwan Strait.
The former vice president urged the DPP to look beyond the November elections and put a greater focus on defending Taiwan’s independence.
PHOTO: CNA
“Facing the prospect of China turning the Taiwan Strait into an inland sea, DPP leaders should not focus all their attention on local elections. We need more people from the party to care about Taiwan’s [sovereign] future,” she said.
“There are elections every year, and the DPP should look beyond this year’s five municipality elections and focus more attention on the future of Taiwan,” she said.
Since DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) is devoting her efforts to running in the Sinbei City mayoral race, other DPP officials should should focus on national security issues and continue the discussion of the party’s 10-year master platform, Lu said.
As the nation’s largest opposition party, the DPP should lead the way for those who care about Taiwan’s independent future, she added.
She also alleged that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is ultimately seeking unification with China via a diplomatic truce and the recently signed cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA).
“Apparently, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait plan to eventually move from economic cooperation to political unification,” she said.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
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The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift