President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday at the 18th National Prayer Breakfast called for national unity in the face of outside threats and said the government would have no patience for provocation.
It is the third time Tsai attended the event, where pastors pray for the president and the nation.
This year’s event was attended by nearly 600 people, including the Nicaraguan, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Swazi, Palauan and Haitian ambassadors.
Photo: CNA
“Our nation is facing many critical challenges, but in the face of challenges, Taiwan must have confidence, faith and perseverance, and keep hope in the heart,” Tsai said.
Tsai said she hoped that the government could safeguard its reforms, the nation could unite in the face of outside threats and the people would be safe during natural disasters brought by extreme weather.
Tsai reiterated a promise she made at the event last year that she would take responsibility for temporary hardship brought about by reforms, but added that she hopes everyone could work together to guard the fruits of reforms affecting the economy, pension programs, social housing, transitional justice and the judicial system.
Cooperation is necessary so that “justice and fairness are ensured,” she said.
The nation faces challenges from within, including generational differences that must be considered when seeking transitional justice, which require collective wisdom to solve, Tsai said.
The government would be humble and solicit views from the public to face the challenges together, she 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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