An article by former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) in the latest issue of a Japanese magazine slammed President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) actions commemorating the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945) as a contradiction of historical fact.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) was quick to condemn Lee and called on the public to denounce him.
The Chinese-language United Daily Evening News said that in the article in the Voice magazine, Lee said the Taiwanese “fought for their motherland as Japanese.”
Seventy years ago, “Taiwan and Japan were one nation. As long as they were the same nation, it is certainly not true [for Ma] to say that Taiwan fought in the resistance war against Japan,” the newspaper quoted Lee as saying.
Ma’s commemoration of the resistance war against Japan was simply an attempt to curry favor with Beijing, Lee said.
“The Taiwanese during that period were undoubtedly Japanese; they fought for their mother country,” Lee said, adding that Ma’s recent actions could be seen as deliberate harassment of Japan, which would nevertheless not change Beijing’s attitude toward Ma.
Beijing is aware that Ma has become the most unpopular president in Taiwan’s history, with an approval rate of 9 percent at one time, Lee added.
According to the newspaper report, Lee also criticized what he said was the the acceleration of the Ma administration’s reliance on China, which he said had been based on the “a counterfeit product” of the so-called “1992 consensus.”
The “1992 consensus” refers to a supposed understanding reached during cross-strait talks in 1992 that both Taiwan and China acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what that means.
The 1992 meeting did not reach a consensus over “one China, respective interpretations,” Lee said, adding that the “1992 consensus” was a term former Mainland Affairs Council minister Su Chi (蘇起) has acknowledged making up.
Hung released a statement condemning Lee soon after the newspaper report came out yesterday evening, saying that she became “hot under the collar” when she heard the news.
She called on “all of society” to undertake both “oral and written denunciations” against Lee.
“Lee was the president of the Republic of China for 12 years. It is unthinkable that he could have made those humiliating remarks. No wonder he is known as Masao Iwasato [his Japanese name]; he is Japanese,” Hung said.
“No wonder I proposed that the party [KMT] expel Lee, as he is a disloyal and heartless person without any virtue,” Hung said.
NATIONAL SECURITY: Authorities are working to confirm the identities of the military personnel involved and investigating possible illegal conduct and regulatory violations Authorities are probing possible national security implications after Kinmen police and immigration officers on Sunday found a Chinese woman allegedly posing as a tourist while engaging in prostitution involving more than 10 military personnel. The woman, surnamed Chen (陳), has since been deported, authorities said, adding that investigators are still working to confirm the identities of those implicated, as the records only listed code names and aliases. The case stemmed from a report received by the Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Friday last week from the Jinhu Precinct of the Kinmen County Police Bureau. On Sunday, police, along with the National Immigration
REASONS FOR TRAVEL: An assistant professor said that proposed amendments to penalize drivers if they used drugs overseas would not deter people from traveling People who operate a motor vehicle under the influence of marijuana would have their driver’s license revoked, even if they used the substance while overseas, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday, citing proposed amendments to the Road Traffic Management and Penalty Act (道路交通管理處罰條例). The amendments would also authorize the government to revoke the licenses of people determined to have used Category 1 or Category 2 narcotics, even if they were not operating a vehicle while under the influence of drugs, as well as ban them from taking the license test for three years, the ministry said. People aged 18 or
GLOBALGIVING: ‘ Caving to external pressure is not acceptable for an organization that has cultivated justice reform and human rights for 30 years,’ one NGO said A slew of non-government organizations (NGOs) have withdrawn from the GlobalGiving fundraising platform after it announced it would use “Chinese Taipei” instead of “Taiwan” from next month. The Taiwan Good Rice Association wrote on Facebook on Friday that it was informed on April 28 via a teleconference call of the change, which was made because the platform wanted to operate in China. Taiwan Good Rice is to terminate all cooperative relationships with GlobalGiving in response to the platform’s “unilateral and non-negotiable” decision to remove references to Taiwan, the NGO said. “Taiwan is in the official name of Taiwan Good Rice Association and the
HEAVY WEATHER: Typhoon Jangmi is due to crash straight into the Ryukyus as airlines look to shift flights to larger aircraft or cancel flights to Okinawa entirely Taiwan’s international air carriers announced flight adjustments over the weekend as Typhoon Jangmi is forecast to hit the Ryukyu Islands today and tomorrow. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) upgraded Jangmi from a tropical storm to a typhoon at 8am yesterday, with the eye located 580km south of Naha city. It was moving north at 19kph. Today, China Airlines’ CI-120, CI-121, CI-122 and CI-123 flights between Taoyuan and Naha, Okinawa, have been canceled as well as CI-132 and CI-133 between Kaohsiung and Naha. EVA Air’s BR-112, BR-113, BR-186 and BR-185 flights between Taoyuan and Naha are also canceled. Low-cost carrier Tigerair Taiwan canceled IT-230,
RSS