Former New Taipei City mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said that his presidential platform would include a “Chinese economic coprosperity sphere,” while blasting President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) policies as “ideological.”
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential hopeful made the remarks at a media event, where he announced his “three Chinese” platform of “firmly supporting the Republic of China’s democratic Constitution,” “expressing the uniqueness of Chinese culture” and “creating a Chinese economic coprosperity sphere.”
The Tsai administration has shown no proclivity for planning, coordination or public communication, Chu said, adding that he would give the president a perfect score in “politicking, anti-China sentiment and ideology,” but zero for the economy, the nation’s diplomatic profile or national security.
Photo: Peter Lo, Taipei Times
People should not worry about the market confusing Taiwanese products with Chinese goods, Chu said, urging people to “have more confidence in Taiwan.”
If elected, he would seek to negotiate a joint declaration for peace with Beijing and would support creating a free-trade zone with China, Chu said.
In response to a foreign reporter’s question about whether he wants to stop Taiwan’s cooperation with the US, a policy for which Tsai has received praise, Chu said that he does not approve of Tsai’s approach to developing the nation’s international profile by confronting Beijing.
However, he added that he remains committed to maintaining friendly ties with the US.
There is no contradiction between being friendly with the US, having ties with China and maintaining regional peace, all of which he would achieve, Chu said, describing his platform as a “triple win.”
The reporter then requested clarification after noting that the US and China are displaying signs of strategic and trade contradictions.
Taiwan should not take sides in the US-China trade conflict, because 40 percent of Taiwanese exports are bound for China, Chu said, adding that Taiwan can be friendly toward China without harming its political or diplomatic relations with the US.
Asked to explain the peace declaration, Chu said that his proposal is an expression of mutual hope and the international community would not consider it to be the same as a peace agreement.
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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