Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen said in Los Angeles on Saturday that she has no plans to run in Taipei during the seven-in-one elections in 2014.
Tsai, who arrived in the US on Saturday for a two-week visit, made the comment in response to media inquiries on the sidelines of a Los Angeles Taiwan Center fundraising dinner, local media reported.
Citing a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) internal poll, local media reported that Tsai would be the favorite to win the 2014 mayoral election in Taipei over possible KMT candidates Vice Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) and Sean Lien (連勝文), son of former vice president Lien Chan (連戰).
Tsai also commented on former premier Frank Hsieh’s (謝長廷) China visit and the heated discussion in the DPP on China policy, saying that she supported the normalization of the mutual dialogue between the DPP and Beijing, but the party would have to stand firm on its core values and basic position.
“The most important internal guideline [for the DPP’s China policy] remains the 1999 resolution on Taiwan’s future,” she said.
Tsai reiterated that she has no plan to visit China, but does not rule out the possibility, adding that there should be no preconditions for bilateral exchanges between the DPP and China.
Speaking to the overseas Taiwanese at the dinner, Tsai lambasted President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) economic policy of a “full-scale tilting toward China” as “chronic suicide.”
Ma’s policy could lead to a “magnetic effect” in which China would attract and absorb Taiwan’s investment, talent and technology, pushing the nation down the value chain, widening the wealth gap and eroding Taiwanese democracy, the former DPP chairperson said.
“If I may, I would like to say that Ma’s policy is depreciating Taiwan’s value in the global economic community. Even worse, it would be a policy of chronic suicide,” she said.
“Ma lacks core economic thinking and has always liked to take the easy way out by saying he supports economic liberalism,” Tsai said, adding that the Ma administration has been irresponsible and lazy because it did not know what to do and how to solve the problems.
“That is why he always says ‘let the market decide,’” Tsai said.
Tsai said it is important for the nation to upgrade its industrial structure and develop a sustainable economic model with brand-new thinking and innovation.
The former DPP presidential candidate is visiting the US to express her gratitude for overseas Taiwanese’s support during the presidential election.
She is scheduled to visit Los Angeles and San Francisco today before meeting with the Taiwanese Association-America in Houston, Texas, on Wednesday and attending a New York Taiwan Center event on Friday.
Tsai is also to visit some family members and former classmates, but that part of the itinerary is closed to the media, her office said.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS