Singapore’s founding father Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀) made waves last week when he told a conference in Singapore that he believed Taiwan has been independent “from 1989 to the present.”
Addressing the closing dinner of the two-day Singapore Global Dialogue on Thursday evening, the 88-year-old, who stepped down from government earlier this year after a poor showing by his People’s Action Party in general elections in May, did not elaborate on why he had chosen 1989 as the year Taiwan became “independent.”
Some Taiwanese media have speculated that the former Singaporean prime minister may have regarded the ascension of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) to the Presidential Office the previous year as a turning point.
Photo: Reuters
Despite that view, Lee Kuan Yew said that Taiwan’s “independence” would be unable to resist China, as he did not “see Taiwan being able to resist the pull of the mainland [China], with or without American help,” Singapore’s Chinese-language newspaper Lianhe Zaobao reported.
No amount of security guarantees by the US or arms sales to Taiwan could counter the great pull of China, he said, because unification remains “an unshakeable goal” for the leadership in Beijing.
“[There will] come a time when [even] the Seventh Fleet cannot intervene because of Chinese aircraft carriers,” he said, referring to the refurbished Soviet-era Varyag, which held its first sea trial last month and is expected to be officially launched sometime next year.
China also has plans to build its own nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, which analysts say could be launched by 2020.
“China has always considered Taiwan as a part of China and it wants China to be reunified [sic],” he said. “The fact that Taiwan was independent from 1989 to the present does not make any difference.”
Asked for comment, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would not speculate on the reasons behind Lee’s assertion that Taiwan is independent, choosing to focus on arms sales instead.
DPP spokesperson Liang Wen-jie (梁文傑) said that Taiwan had been able to sustain the “status quo” since 1949 because the nation maintained certain defensive capabilities.
If China attempted to take over Taiwan by force, Liang said, it would pay a huge price.
Liang added that if Taiwan, much like Hong Kong or Macau, did not have certain defensive capabilities, it would have been impossible to maintain its independent sovereignty and democratic system for 60 years.
Meanwhile, KMT spokesperson Lai Su-ju (賴素如) said that US arms sales to Taiwan would not affect cross-strait relations and that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration’s cross-strait policies of maintaining the “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait under the so-called “1992 consensus” remained unchanged.
Ma has made it clear that the government will continue the “three noes” policy of no independence, no unification and no use of force in handling cross-strait relations.
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih and Rich Chang
TRAFFIC SAFETY RULES: A positive result in a drug test would result in a two-year license suspension for the driver and vehicle, and a fine of up to NT$180,000 The Ministry of Transportation and Communications is to authorize police to conduct roadside saliva tests by the end of the year to deter people from driving while under the influence of narcotics, it said yesterday. The ministry last month unveiled a draft of amended regulations governing traffic safety rules and penalties, which included provisions empowering police to conduct mandatory saliva tests on drivers. While currently rules authorize police to use oral fluid testing kits for signs of drug use, they do not establish penalties for noncompliance or operating procedures for officers to follow, the ministry said. The proposed changes to the regulations require
The Executive Yuan yesterday announced that registration for a one-time universal NT$10,000 cash handout to help people in Taiwan survive US tariffs and inflation would start on Nov. 5, with payouts available as early as Nov. 12. Who is eligible for the handout? Registered Taiwanese nationals are eligible, including those born in Taiwan before April 30 next year with a birth certificate. Non-registered nationals with residence permits, foreign permanent residents and foreign spouses of Taiwanese citizens with residence permits also qualify for the handouts. For people who meet the eligibility requirements, but passed away between yesterday and April 30 next year, surviving family members
China Airlines Ltd (CAL) yesterday morning joined SkyTeam’s Aviation Challenge for the fourth time, operating a demonstration flight for “net zero carbon emissions” from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Bangkok. The flight used sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at a ratio of up to 40 percent, the highest proportion CAL has achieved to date, the nation’s largest carrier said. Since April, SAF has become available to Taiwanese international carriers at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport), Kaohsiung International Airport and Taoyuan airport. In previous challenges, CAL operated “net zero carbon emission flights” to Singapore and Japan. At a ceremony at Taoyuan airport, China Airlines chief sustainability
‘ONE CHINA’: A statement that Berlin decides its own China policy did not seem to sit well with Beijing, which offered only one meeting with the German official German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul’s trip to China has been canceled, a spokesperson for his ministry said yesterday, amid rising tensions between the two nations, including over Taiwan. Wadephul had planned to address Chinese curbs on rare earths during his visit, but his comments about Berlin deciding on the “design” of its “one China” policy ahead of the trip appear to have rankled China. Asked about Wadephul’s comments, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Guo Jiakun (郭嘉昆) said the “one China principle” has “no room for any self-definition.” In the interview published on Thursday, Wadephul said he would urge China to
RSS