President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) on Tuesday told Taiwanese expatriates in Hawaii that she would not accept China’s “one country, two systems” framework as long as she is president.
Tsai, who was making an overnight stop in Hawaii on the return leg of her eight-day Oceans of Democracy visit to Palau, Nauru and the Marshall Islands, made the remark at a banquet attended by American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Chairman James Moriarty, former AIT chairman Raymond Burghardt, Hawaii House of Representatives Speaker Scott Saiki, Hawaii Senate Majority Leader Kalani English and others.
She was greeted at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport in Honolulu by Moriarty, Representative to the US Stanley Kao (高碩泰) and Hawaii Governor David Ige.
Photo: CNA
Every president says they want reform, but only she has had the “foolish courage” to push for pension reform, a social safety net, economic transition, energy development and other initiatives, Tsai said at the banquet.
In the past, relying on China was the solution, but now, Taiwan is expanding into more diverse markets, she said.
While some argue that Taiwan should go back to relying on the Chinese market, Tsai said she believes that Taiwan is doing better now, as it does not rely on a single market.
Taiwan has engaged with many democratic nations, and “almost no one has given us a political framework” to follow, she added.
At the beginning of the year, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) proposed a “one country, two systems” framework for Taiwan — but as long as she is president, she would not accept it, Tsai said.
She said Taiwan and the US have made progress in their relations because the US has confidence in Taiwan and believes it is a reliable partner and would not bow to external pressure.
Taiwan is willing to make greater contributions to the overall development of democracy, regional prosperity and collective security in the Indo-Pacific region, Tsai added.
Tsai was yesterday scheduled to speak with the Heritage Foundation, a Washington-based think tank, via video and visit the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency and the Hawaii National Guard’s disaster prevention center.
Sources had said Hawaii Adjutant General Arthur Logan would be accompanying Tsai on the visit.
SEE HIGH ON PAGE 8
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching