Supporters of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) have been advised to be tolerant and to give the Republic of China (ROC) “more space” in acknowledging that the “ROC is Taiwan and Taiwan is [the] ROC,” former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said on Friday night in New York.
The former DPP presidential candidate made the remark in a speech at the Taiwan Center in Flushing, New York, the last public appearance of her two-week “thank-you” tour of the US, a press release provided by Tsai’s office stated.
DPP supporters should be tolerant of the ROC because “the sovereignty of this country remains within the hands of the Taiwanese, regardless of what its name is,” said Tsai, who arrived in New York after stops at Houston, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
Tsai, who lost her bid to head the country in the January presidential election, said the DPP should prepare itself and be ready to govern “from the first minute it returns to power” because Taiwan’s national development has been in crisis since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took office, adding that there was no time to waste.
Speaking to more than 300 Taiwanese-Americans, Tsai said a stagnant economy, perilous government finances and under-fire democratic development are the three biggest crises currently confronting Taiwan.
“What we should be talking about now is not how to win the 2016 election, but what we should be doing for the good of this country and its people,” she said.
Highlighting the challenges to democracy in Taiwan, Tsai said that interference from third parties as well as unfair political structures and a sluggish economy pose major challenges to the country.
The so-called “1992 consensus,” which the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Beijing agreed upon, had played a pivotal role — allowing China to threaten Taiwan economically and allowing it to interfere in Taiwanese politics — in the outcome of January’s presidential election, she said.
The consolidation of Taiwan’s democracy as a result is important for Taiwanese because it would ensure they continue to enjoy free elections and the power to make decisions of their own free will, she said.
Tsai wished the Taiwanese-American community the best of luck after Hurricane Sandy hit vast swathes of New York, causing scores of deaths.
Tsai is scheduled to continue on a personal leg of her journey and is set to visit relatives and classmates in the US, her office said in a statement.
Environmental groups yesterday filed an appeal with the Executive Yuan, seeking to revoke the environmental impact assessment (EIA) conditionally approved in February for the Hsieh-ho Power Plant’s planned fourth liquefied natural gas (LNG) receiving station off the coast of Keelung. The appeal was filed jointly by the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group, the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association and the Keelung City Taiwan Head Cultural Association, which together held a news conference outside the Executive Yuan in Taipei. Explaining the reasons for the appeal, Wang Hsing-chih (王醒之) of the Protect Waimushan Seashore Action Group said that the EIA failed to address
Taipei on Thursday held urban resilience air raid drills, with residents in one of the exercises’ three “key verification zones” reporting little to no difference compared with previous years, despite government pledges of stricter enforcement. Formerly known as the Wanan exercise, the air raid drills, which concluded yesterday, are now part of the “Urban Resilience Exercise,” which also incorporates the Minan disaster prevention and rescue exercise. In Taipei, the designated key verification zones — where the government said more stringent measures would be enforced — were Songshan (松山), Zhongshan (中山) and Zhongzheng (中正) districts. Air raid sirens sounded at 1:30pm, signaling the
The number of people who reported a same-sex spouse on their income tax increased 1.5-fold from 2020 to 2023, while the overall proportion of taxpayers reporting a spouse decreased by 4.4 percent from 2014 to 2023, Ministry of Finance data showed yesterday. The number of people reporting a spouse on their income tax trended upward from 2014 to 2019, the Department of Statistics said. However, the number decreased in 2020 and 2021, likely due to a drop in marriages during the COVID-19 pandemic and the income of some households falling below the taxable threshold, it said. The number of spousal tax filings rebounded
Labor rights groups yesterday called on the Ministry of Labor to protect migrant workers in Taiwan’s fishing industry, days after CNN reported alleged far-ranging abuses in the sector, including deaths and forced work. The ministry must enforce domestic labor protection laws on Taiwan-owned deep-sea fishing vessels, the Coalition for Human Rights for Migrant Fishers told a news conference outside the ministry in Taipei after presenting a petition to officials. CNN on Sunday reported that Taiwanese seafood giant FCF Co, the owners of the US-based Bumble Bee Foods, committed human rights abuses against migrant fishers, citing Indonesian migrant fishers. The alleged abuses included denying
RSS