Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said that the biggest difference between her call for “maintaining the status quo” and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) is “democracy.”
Asked about Ma’s remarks that he has established the cross-strait “status quo,” Tsai said that many Taiwanese would probably not agree.
Tsai said the status quo she has promised to maintain is “the status quo of Taiwan’s liberal democracy and cross-strait peace,” which are the most significant elements.
Photo: CNA
“The ‘status quo’ we have now is the outcome achieved together by Taiwanese, who have made great efforts in the past 20 or so years. It is not something that any person could interpret as he likes or according to his will,” Tsai said.
“The most conspicuous difference between the ‘status quo’ I would strive to maintain and the one upheld by President Ma is democracy, which is the right of the 23 million Taiwanese to decide their own future. This ‘status quo’ cannot be altered,” the DPP chairperson said.
Regarding the president’s comment that he is building a bridge for his successor, Tsai said that Taiwanese society is not against cross-strait exchanges or those between the leaders of the two sides, “but the bridge must have a well-founded base, which is Taiwan’s public opinion and democracy.”
“The bridge must be built upon a solid foundation that consists of democratic procedure, transparency and effective legislative supervision. However, what we have witnessed this time is that the president has failed to realize that what the people of a democracy expect is not simply a result, but that this outcome has to emerge from a democratic procedure that is supervised by the legislature with relevant information available to the public,” Tsai said, referring to Ma’s meeting today with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平).
In related news, the DPP yesterday said that a poll found that 65.9 percent of the public have little trust in Ma’s ability to handle cross-strait affairs.
According to the poll it conducted on Wednesday and Thursday, 74 percent of respondents agree that Ma should have undertaken communication with the legislature and the opposition parties beforehand, while 17.3 percent disagreed.
The poll found 59.5 percent agree that the president’s public announcement about the Ma-Xi meeting only days before the event is a “black-box” operation that had sidestepped due supervision, while 29.9 percent disagreed.
The poll found 66.8 percent agreed that Ma should not make major cross-strait policy proclamations during the meeting when he has only half a year left in office.
The poll collected 926 valid samples from citizens aged 20 or above across the nation. It has a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus-3.2 percentage points.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
A group from the Taiwanese Designers in Australia association yesterday represented Taiwan at the Midsumma Pride March in Melbourne. The march, held in the St. Kilda suburb, is the city’s largest LGBTQIA+ parade and the flagship event of the annual Midsumma Festival. It attracted more than 45,000 spectators who supported the 400 groups and 10,000 marchers that participated this year, the association said. Taiwanese Designers said they organized a team to march for Taiwan this year, joining politicians, government agencies, professionals and community organizations in showing support for LGBTQIA+ people and diverse communities. As the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex
MOTIVES QUESTIONED The PLA considers Xi’s policies toward Taiwan to be driven by personal considerations rather than military assessment, the Epoch Times reports Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) latest purge of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) leadership might have been prompted by the military’s opposition to plans of invading Taiwan, the Epoch Times said. The Chinese military opposes waging war against Taiwan by a large consensus, putting it at odds with Xi’s vision, the Falun Gong-affiliated daily said in a report on Thursday, citing anonymous sources with insight into the PLA’s inner workings. The opposition is not the opinion of a few generals, but a widely shared view among the PLA cadre, the Epoch Times cited them as saying. “Chinese forces know full well that
An elderly man with underlying health conditions died in mid-January, eight days after the onset of symptoms, marking Taiwan’s first hantavirus death this year, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The man, who was in his 70s and lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安), tested positive posthumously for hantavirus after passing away on Jan. 13 from sepsis complicated by multiple organ failure and pneumonia, the CDC said in a press release. According to the CDC, the man sought treatment on Jan. 6 for respiratory issues and low blood pressure before returning two
RSS