Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday defended his initiative of “constitutions with different interpretations” (憲法各表) and said the ability to manage cross-strait relations would be key for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to return to power.
Hsieh said on his weekly radio talk show that he felt sad that some of his party comrades disapproved of his recent visit to China, but said that his move has been welcomed by many others, as well as the US and Japan.
On the DPP’s engagement with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), “three issues should be deliberated — whether we should engage them, what position should we engage them with and whether the engagement would benefit the DPP in the future,” he said.
The need for bilateral exchange has been almost a consensus in the DPP, Hsieh said.
As for his initiative, it is a proposal to forge mutual dialogues while safeguarding Taiwan’s sovereignty and identity at the same time, Hsieh said, adding that those who opposed the proposal would have to come up with a better idea.
On the third issue, Hsieh said the DPP could not compete with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) on funding, media advantages and administrative resources, but it could try to neutralize the influence and interference of the CCP and secure support from Taiwanese businesspeople in China, most of whom were believed to be KMT supporters.
That explained why the DPP’s road to returning to power would have to go through China, he said.
Hsieh said he had visited several opinion leaders, including DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) and independence activist Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) since his return from China on Oct. 8.
Hsieh, who visited Lee on Monday afternoon for a 90-minute meeting, said Lee responded positively to the visit and that some media reports that said Lee was not impressed with Hsieh’s move were inaccurate.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods