Former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文) said he opposed the appointment of former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) to head the party’s planned China Affairs Committee being mulled by DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌).
To consolidate and integrate the party’s policies on China, Su is said to be planning to designate Hsieh as head of the reinstated committee.
“I am quite concerned with Hsieh’s stance on China. Hsieh’s proposal for a 'constitutional one China (憲法一中)' is contrary to the DPP’s platform on Taiwanese sovereignty,” he said. “What would the committee do? Would it have an advisory role, or have policy decisionmaking functions? This must be clearly delineated, because the DPP already has decisionmaking bodies in the Central Executive Committee and the Central Standing Committee.”
Former premier and former DPP chairman Yu Shyi-kun also questioned the move.
“We already have the Department of China Affairs, so why do we need a China Affairs Committee?” he asked.
In response, DPP spokesperson Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) said this was an ongoing matter.
“As of yet, we do not have a timetable on the starting date of the committee. We understand there are different opinions inside the party. The party executives will take time with due consideration on this matter. We will inform everyone when progress has been made,” Wang said.
A top DPP executive said Su had already decided to put Hsieh in charge of the committee. In response to media inquiries, Wang said no decision had been made.
According to an official from a pro-localization group, members of some pro-localization groups discussed the issue of the DPP’s plans to reinstate the committee, and a number of officials had reservations about the move.
Some, remembering Hsieh’s "one country, two cities (一國兩市)" initiative in 2000, were apprehensive about his stance on China, the official said, adding that they remain wary of Hsieh’s overall views on cross-strait relations, despite supporting his resistance to the so-called “1992 consensus” during his visit to China last week.
Hsieh returned earlier this week from a five-day visit to China to mixed reviews and criticism from the pan-green camp, after he became the most senior member of the DPP to meet with high-ranking Chinese officials.
Hsieh sought to set people’s minds at ease in a post on Web site Plurk yesterday.
“Freedom, democracy and human rights are the fruits of Taiwan’s democracy movement these past 30 years. Most of these core values are documented in the Constitution,” he wrote. “To me, aside from the difference of constitutional order between 'constitutions with different interpretations (憲法各表)' and ‘one China, with each side having its own interpretation (一中各表)' .... there are also differences in our emotional response to it.”
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS