Beijing is nervous about Taiwan’s Jan. 16 presidential election because it recognizes that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) could win, a former US Department of State official said last week.
“Beijing is obviously nervous about the prospect of the victory of the DPP,” said Evans Revere, who served as principal US deputy assistant secretary and acting assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific Affairs before retiring from the department in 2007.
He made the comment in response to a question during an interview with the Central News Agency.
The latest polls show DPP Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) leading in a three-person race against the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate, Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), who on Thursday said he would enter the race.
Beijing has made it clear over the years that it has “fundamental disagreements” with the DPP, Revere said.
Tsai “has been very careful and very precise in her rhetoric and I am hoping that Beijing will listen very carefully to what she has said and what she has not said in this campaign,” he added.
During a 12-day trip to the US earlier this summer, Tsai said that, if elected president, she would continue to promote cross-strait peace and stability under the Constitution.
Irrespective of the outcome of the election, it would be “a victory for democracy in Taiwan,” Revere said.
He also said that he hoped Beijing would respect the voice of the Taiwanese and understand that there would be opportunities to build on the achievements made in cross-strait relations over the past few years.
“There will be a strong desire to maintain the accomplishments in cross-strait relations,” regardless of the outcome of the election, he said.
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
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
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
The first bluefin tuna of the season, brought to shore in Pingtung County and weighing 190kg, was yesterday auctioned for NT$10,600 (US$333.5) per kilogram, setting a record high for the local market. The auction was held at the fish market in Donggang Fishing Harbor, where the Siaoliouciou Island-registered fishing vessel Fu Yu Ching No. 2 delivered the “Pingtung First Tuna” it had caught for bidding. Bidding was intense, and the tuna was ultimately jointly purchased by a local restaurant and a local company for NT$10,600 per kilogram — NT$300 ,more than last year — for a total of NT$2.014 million. The 67-year-old skipper
RSS