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.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS