Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday described China’s political maneuvers and increasing economic ties with Taiwan as a “silent annexation” and warned of the gradual erosion of Taiwan’s sovereignty.
“The silent annexation is ongoing. The Democratic Progressive Party’s [DPP] loss of power might be tolerable, but the loss of sovereignty in our time would be an irreversible mistake that would jeopardize future generations,” Lu said in a speech during the founding ceremony of the Anti-One China Principle Union.
The group, co-founded by DPP Legislator Mark Chen (陳唐山), Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) and former DPP lawmaker Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮), was established to monitor President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) perceived pro-China policies.
Photo: Wang Min-wei, Taipei Times
Taiwan does not oppose that there is only one China in the world, Lu said, but “that does not mean Taiwan is part of China.”
The former vice president warned that China has been using different measures to absorb Taiwan since passing an “Anti-Secession” law in 2005.
Ma’s policies since taking office in 2008 appear to have dovetailed with Beijing’s measures and have accelerated Taiwan’s dependence on China, she said.
In response to recent debates about the DPP’s pro-independence stance and a perceived collaborative anti-Taiwan independence campaign between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), leveraged on the so-called “1992 consensus,” Lu reiterated the idea of a “1996 consensus.”
“We should never have a doubt about Taiwan’s independent status. Taiwan has been an independent and sovereign country since March 23, 1996, the day of its first direct presidential election,” Lu said.
The “1996 consensus,” which represents the collective will and decisionmaking of the nation’s 23 million people, is a better consensus than the “1992 consensus,” which is only an illusion fabricated by the KMT and the CCP, Lu said.
Chen also warned that Taiwan “has already entered China’s orbit” under the Ma administration.
As a reminder to his own party, which Chen said has “somehow lost faith in what it believed in,” the lawmaker said the DPP “should know who the enemy is and understand that an enemy will never help you to win power.”
On the desire of several DPP politicians to urgently facilitate closer engagement with Beijing, Chen cited former US president John F. Kennedy as saying: “Do not fear to negotiate, but do not negotiate out of fear.”
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
RSS