The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would be prepared to seek active engagement with China, but would not change its policies to achieve that goal if he were elected party chairperson next month, former DPP chairperson Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良) said yesterday.
Hsu, one of five candidates running in the May 27 DPP chairperson election, focused on his China policy during a meeting with some of the party’s younger members yesterday.
“I would support the DPP’s engagement with Beijing and do not rule out visiting China myself, but I would not change our policies in order to make such a trip happen,” said the 70-year-old, who analysts consider the most moderate of the candidates in terms of China policy.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
Hsu said that he did not think it was necessary to rescind the Taiwanese independence clause in the party charter for engagement with Beijing, because “we can not deny our own history.”
“There is no such thing as abandoning Taiwanese independence. As Taiwan is now an independent country, how would we give it up? That’s simply impossible,” Hsu said, adding that he had always advocated a policy that “guarantees the political status quo before boldly opening up.”
However, the Taiwanese independence clause in the DPP charter could be replaced with a new resolution, he said.
Hsu said that former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) proposed China policy of “Taiwan is the Republic of China [ROC] and the ROC is Taiwan” would be a good place to start and could be drafted into an official document, to highlight the party’s recognition of the ROC political system.
However, Hsu said he favored the “constitutional consensus” advocated by former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) over Tsai’s “Taiwan consensus,” because consensus on a constitution would incorporate a broader swathe of public opinion and therefore hopefully end internal division over Taiwanese identity.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
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