“What we need is the Meiji Restoration, not the Boxer Rebellion,” Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said yesterday, in response to a New Power Party (NPP) statement that the Taiwan People’s Party (TTP) would become a “rootless political party” if he, the party’s chairman, continues to avoid national sovereignty issues.
Ko launched the party last month, and on Sunday, while introducing the party’s legislative nominees, said that other parties have all made the mistake of trying to compete with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Democratic Progressive Party on the spectrum between pro-unification and pro-independence.
The TPP would avoid such a mistake by focusing on improving governance, he said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
NPP Secretary-General Wu Pei-yun (吳佩芸) afterward on Sunday issued a press release saying that if Ko continues to avoid explaining his stance on national sovereignty, the TPP would become a “rootless political party.”
A party’s stance on national sovereignty would not conflict with its ability to govern a nation, and might even be supplementary to its governance, she said, adding that as Taiwan, a democratic nation, faces threats from the People’s Republic of China, its political figures should not be ambiguous about their stance.
Ko yesterday said his party is clear on “Taiwan being the top priority.”
“What we need now is the Meiji Restoration, not the Boxer Rebellion,” he added.
The Meiji Restoration was a political and social revolution in Japan that ended the power of the last feudal military government of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, and brought about the modernization and Westernization of the country.
The Boxer Rebellion was an officially supported peasant uprising that took place in China from 1899 to 1901. The uprising was against Western imperialism and Christianity, and attempted to drive all foreigners from China, but was ended by an eight-nation alliance and China had to pay reparations.
Several NPP members have said they cannot accept Ko’s stance that the “two sides of the Strait are one family.”
Ko said that the phrase is not about politics, but about cross-strait relations in general, and Taiwan has to think about its global positioning in light of the US-China trade dispute.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
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