President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) inaugural speech on Sunday was vague, conflicting and cliched, addressing neither what should be done to solve domestic economic woes nor uphold Taiwan’s sovereignty, political analysts told a forum yesterday.
The president did not address what he would do to rejuvenate Taiwan’s economy, nor did he apologize for a series of ill-advised policies, such as fuel and electricity price increases and the controversy over imports of meat containing the feed-additive ractopamine, said Wu Rong-i (吳榮義), president of the Taiwan Brain Trust think tank, which organized the forum.
Wu desribed the speech as having “one no and four withouts” — meaning Ma showed no -understanding of public opinion, while he failed to apologize for poor policies, showed no self-introspection, insisted on using the “one China” framework and put forward no new ideas.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Ma misinterpreted the Republic of China (ROC) Constitution in his speech because the “outdated” Constitution should not be used to explain Taiwan’s sovereignty and the “status quo,” Taiwan Association of University Professors -president Chang Yen-hsien (張炎憲) said.
Moreover, Chang said, as the president of Taiwan, Ma’s highlighting “Zhonghua Culture (中華文化)” and “Zhonghua Minzu (中華民族)” was “completely impractical” and neglected Taiwan’s traditional culture and values.
“The emphasis on Zhonghua Minzu was just what Beijing wanted to hear because it reaffirmed the connection between Taiwan and China. It also implies that Ma favors eventual unification,” he said.
Ma’s reiteration of the “one country, two areas (一國兩區)” formula suggested “de facto unification,” mislead the international community and legitimized Beijing’s anti-secession law, which was ratified in 2005, said David Huang (黃偉峰), a researcher at Academia Sinica.
The “one country, two areas” proposal raised eyebrows earlier this year when former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) delivered it to Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) during a visit to Beijing.
“It’s clear that the international community recognizes the China in ‘one China’ as the People’s -Republic of China, not the ROC,” Huang said.
People First Party Deputy Secretary-General Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) said Ma had turned his back on the people with his inconsistent policies, arrogance and authoritarianism.
Some of Ma’s policies seemed to be conflicting, Liu said, such as his plan to establish a free-trade area in Greater Kaohsiung to attract Chinese investment and his pledge to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership, an economic integration that aims to contain China, in eight years.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS