President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday stressed his Hakka identity and promoted the government’s efforts to take care of Hakka communities as he met with Hakka representatives at the Presidential Office.
While Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was on a campaign trip soliciting support from Hakka communities, Ma defended his efforts to promote Hakka affairs since he served as Taipei mayor and said his ancestors were Hakka from Hunan Province, China.
Speaking briefly in Hakka, Ma discussed his annual visit to the Ma Village (馬家庄) in Miaoli County’s Tongsiao Township (通宵) and said the last name “Ma” originated in Hunan Province, seeking to make a connection with the Hakka community.
“I’ve always cared about Hakka affairs and I set up the Hakka Affairs Commission under the Taipei City Government when I served as Taipei mayor ... I will bring the Hakka people’s hard-working spirit into full play in my efforts to work for the nation,” he said.
The president is known for visiting Ma Village on the second day of every Lunar New Year holiday to distribute red envelopes as a New Year blessing.
However, while most of Ma Village’s residents are surnamed Ma, none of the Hong Kong-born president’s ancestors or relatives have ever lived there.
Ma touted his government’s efforts on Hakka policies, including the passage of the Hakka Basic Act (客家基本法), which allows the government to use national resources on a plan to turn Taiwan into a global Hakka cultural research and interaction center.
He also defended his cross-strait policies and said that his administration was promoting peace across the Taiwan Strait.
“Our efforts in cross-strait relations have turned the Taiwan Strait from a battlefield into a peace square and they also help promote better international relations ... This is a meaningful step and hopefully we will not move backwards,” he said.
Earlier yesterday, retired generals led by former premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) pledged their support for Ma in an activity organized by the Alumni Association of the Central Military Institutes and Academy.
Hau acknowledged that not everyone was satisfied with the president, but he urged veterans to support Ma’s re-election bid for the sake of the survival of the Republic of China (ROC).
“We must have a sense of crisis and only by supporting President Ma in the presidential election can we ensure the development of the ROC and cross-strait peace, because securing the safety of the Taiwanese people is our life-long mission,” he said.
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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