The Taiwan Independence Party (TIP) yesterday unveiled its list of legislative candidates for Taipei and Taoyuan, with many more expected to take up the party’s banner in the coming days, party officials said.
Leading the list of candidates is TIP Chairman Chen Chao-ming (陳兆銘), who is to run in Taipei’s Neihu (內湖) and Nangang (南港) districts.
Presenting the party’s platform and policies, Chen said that TIP is the only party whose candidates are not afraid to openly call for an end to the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) fraudulent Republic of China (ROC) political framework, and to convene a Taiwanese national congress and declare the establishment of a new “Taiwan” nation.
Chen said the TIP is the best choice for voters who are fed up with and want to get rid of the corrupt KMT regime, as well as abolish the many inequalities and unfair privileges granted to society’s elites, Mainlanders and KMT-affiliated business circles.
Joining Chen on the TIP ticket are Lin Sin-kai (林新凱), who is to represent the party in Taipei’s Zhongshan (中山) and Songshan (松山) districts, and Lan Ta-shan (藍大山) and Wu Chen-tuo (吳振槖), who are to run in their respective home districts in Taoyuan.
While the TIP has mainly targeted the KMT, there is rising concern that the entry of more smaller political parties could splinter the vote in the pan-green camp.
Some observers have said it has already created a rift among pro-Taiwan identity groups and several nascent political parties advocating Taiwan independence, and that the result would benefit the KMT.
James Soong (宋楚瑜) and his People First Party could also take advantage of the rift to make gains in the Jan. 16 elections.
Addressing these concerns, Lin said that the TIP is only staking out territory that has been abandoned by the mainstream parties.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has altered its platform by stating that “Taiwan is already [an] independent [nation] and it is represented by the ROC,” which Lin said was a “betrayal” of the DPP’s core founding values.
“The KMT is a foreign colonial regime, which has used force and coercion to subjugate Taiwanese under its dictatorial rule. It has imposed its Sinocentric ROC framework through illegal means. We do not recognize its legitimacy,” Lin said.
Meanwhile, Lan advocates a national referendum to settle the question.
“We want Taiwanese to make a decision by casting their vote” on whether to establish a new “Taiwan” nation with an open declaration to the international community, and then go on to apply to join the UN, Lan said.
Lan urged voters to support the TIP, saying it is the only party that can consolidate true “Taiwanese independence” voters, and are working toward nation-building with policies to bolster Taiwanese identity, as well as promote and strengthen native cultures and languages.
The TIP platform also includes educational reforms to establish a Taiwan-centric system and reconstituting the armed forces’ structure to integrate new technologies and build up an “Island Nation Fortress” defense system.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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