Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) heavyweights yesterday voiced their support for DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) decision to attend the Double Ten National Day celebrations, with many of them saying that they would also be present.
DPP politicians are not usually guests at the Double Ten National Day celebrations for the Republic of China (ROC) — especially since President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) assumed office in 2008.
“If the party chairperson is attending, there is no reason for the caucus to be absent,” DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said when asked whether he would also attend the event.
“I would suggest that the entire caucus should attend the celebrations,” he added.
Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) said that Tsai’s attendance is a symbol of political reconciliation.
“I think it is good that [Tsai] is willing to attend, because although everyone talks about crossing party divisions and reaching a cross-party consensus, it is more important to take action,” Hsieh said.
Asked to comment on Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu’s (洪秀柱) request that Tsai should apologize for not attending the ceremony over the past six years, Hsieh said that the KMT should stop thinking about the past.
“It is not surprising that the KMT would interpret [Tsai’s] motivations negatively, that is how things are during election campaigns,” Hsieh said. “However, when you are always tied to the past and live in the past, you stay there forever, right? There’s a beginning to everything.”
Former premier Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃) said that it is not important whether he attends the ceremony; it is more important that Tsai attempts to resolve the political standoff.
“We should all support her for the attempt. After all, when you run for president, you are running under the ROC system,” Yu said.
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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