Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday countered President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) interpretation of his “constitutions with different interpretations” (憲法各表) proposal, saying the initiative was intended to highlight that there were two constitutions on either side of the Taiwan Strait, not one.
Ma was quoted in an interview with Chinese-language news magazine Yazhou Zoukan published on Thursday as saying that Hsieh’s initiative “is not different than the Chinese Nationalist Party’s [KMT] initiative of ‘one China with different interpretations’ (一中各表).”
“Hsieh advocated ‘constitutional one China’ (憲法一中) in the past and is now advocating ‘constitutions with different interpretations.’ Putting them together, you get ‘one China with different interpretations.’ It’s the same as our initiative,” Ma said.
In response, Hsieh said in Yilan County that his initiative “highlights the fact that there are two effective and working constitutions in Taiwan and China at present, while there would be only one legal constitution in the KMT’s initiative.”
“Our Constitution has gone through amendments and the democratic reform in Taiwan that would reaffirm the existence of the Republic of China [ROC]. It is different from the ‘one China’ initiative,” Hsieh added.
Beijing has never accepted the KMT’s “one China with different interpretations” initiative and has always spoken against it publicly, Hsieh said.
The former premier said it would be better for Taiwan if the DPP and the KMT had similar cross-strait policies and positions so the parties would be able to compete on their domestic policies and governance and the nation would have normal party politics.
However, former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) agreed with Ma’s assessment, saying yesterday in New Taipei City (新北市), where she was campaigning for an anti-nuclear power referendum, that “Ma has hit the bullseye and everyone knows it.”
Hsieh is free to say what he wants, but if even Ma could see through Hsieh’s proposal, the DPP should try to clarify its China policy and position as soon as possible, Lu said.
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