Taiwan needs a strong government and a united society to protect its sovereign territories and democratic way of life, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday, adding that appeasement or making compromises would not bring stability in the Taiwan Strait.
Tsai made the remarks at a news conference following a high-level national security meeting, where she also announced a slew of legal initiatives that she said would bolster Taiwan’s defenses against China’s “united front” infiltration tactics.
Officials have been told of the administration’s intent to counter those moves by hastening the creation of a legal “safety net for democracy,” she said.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
The legislature has supported the effort by amending the Criminal Code and the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), she added.
Other laws to be amended include the Criminal Code of the Armed Forces (陸海空軍刑法), the Trade Secrets Act (營業秘密法), the National Intelligence Services Act (國家情報工作法) and the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), she said.
As China increases pressure on Taiwan, the public should be made aware of several alarming cross-strait developments it had initiated, she said.
Beijing is using propaganda, conducting so-called “democratic negotiations” with Taiwanese groups, and attempting to isolate Taiwan militarily and diplomatically to force Taiwanese to submit to its “the one country, two systems” scheme, she said.
China is also meddling with next year’s general elections by ordering its Taiwan Affairs Office to sow division and prompt Taiwanese politicians to make pro-Beijing statements, as it has done in previous elections, she said.
Further, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army is likely to continue its saber-rattling in the Taiwan Strait with sea and air drills, even as it challenges the US for control over the South China Sea, she said.
The nation’s armed forces are building submarines, as well as anti-air and anti-ship missile systems, while regularizing the procurement of foreign arms, Tsai said.
The government deems continued and robust arms sales from the US, the US House of Representatives’ passage of the Taiwan Assurance Act of 2019, and the Port of Kaohsiung’s establishment of a submarine construction and repair facility as positive developments, among others, the president said.
“The nation should be assured that we will deter any and all Chinese efforts to cause incidents in the Taiwan Strait, and Taiwan will ceaselessly strengthen its defense capabilities as a force for regional peace,” she said.
Beijing’s obstruction of Taiwan’s participation in the World Health Assembly has resulted in international condemnation, Tsai said, adding that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other agencies are informing the world of China’s aggressive intent through a variety of channels.
“The encroachment of a foreign power is less disturbing than divisions amongst ourselves or our failure to show the determination to defend ourselves,” she said. “Our strategy ... is to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty and democracy by preventing any act of Chinese aggression against Taiwan.”
“Only a strong government and a unified Taiwanese society can protect the nation’s sovereign and territorial integrity, and guarantee that our democratic way of life survives for generations to come,” Tsai 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:
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