Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), citing the telephone call between President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and US president-elect Donald Trump on Dec. 2, yesterday lauded the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration’s efforts in expanding diplomacy.
Speaking at a Taiwan Association of University Professors’ luncheon in Taipei, Lee said that despite media reports suggesting incompatibilities in the foreign policies of Tsai and Trump, recent developments suggest that the DPP government has made some headway in diplomacy.
The former president said that while there was no interaction between Taiwan and the US Republican Party during the US elections, the DPP has done a good job of taking advantage of the political climate generated by the phone call to further expand Taiwan’s international space.
Taiwan must make the international community aware that “Taiwan is Taiwan, China is China,” Lee said, adding that the two are distinct nations.
“How does the incoming US president intend to handle Washington’s relations with Asia-Pacific nations? Would he withdraw from the Trans-Pacific Partnership [TPP]? Should Japan lead the TPP in the absence of US participation?” Lee asked, adding that a decline of US dominance presents a good opportunity for the emergence of a new power.
Lee said China rose to power quickly when the US economy weakened and that given increasing political risks in East Asia, Taiwan must respond to the situation by asserting its sovereignty and seeking recognition as a nation.
“Moving [Taiwan] toward becoming a normalized nation is a serious matter. We should push for normalization and carry out constitutional reform,” Lee said, adding that it would become unavoidable in the 2020 presidential and legislative elections
Lee said a strong nation depends on three factors: strong leadership; consensus and solidarity within the government; and a blueprint for the nation’s development goals.
The government cannot chase an ideal perpetuated by the media while failing to enact realistic and effective policies, Lee said.
“The president must have higher expectations and loftier goals than the average person. The nation needs a blueprint for five to 10 years of policy,” Lee said, adding that this blueprint must incorporate the views of the government and all sections of society.
When asked about same-sex marriage demonstrations taking place yesterday, Lee said: “I do not agree with [marriage equality]. I have my beliefs as a Christian.”
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,