It may be impossible for President Lee Teng-hui (
In his speech to a group of some 400 members of the group, Lee focused not so much on the distance between Taipei and Washington, but how closely US interests are linked to Taiwan and how they have contributed to the island's growth.
US support for Taiwan's security has been an important factor in Taiwan's liberalization, democratization and economic development, Lee said.
PHOTO: NADIA TSAO, TAIPEI TIMES
"The formulation and implementation of the Taiwan Relations Act, the US supply of defensive weapons to Taiwan and the decisive move of deploying two aircraft carriers to the seas near Taiwan during the 1996 Taiwan Strait crisis are all substantial expressions of the commitment the US has made to maintain the security of Taiwan," he said.
Lee's speech, even in its video form, did not come without opposition from the Chinese Embassy in Washington, and on this point, Lee tried to set straight the Beijing government.
"The ROC is situated at the gateway of the Asia-Pacific, a strategic position for the US. It is closely linked to US interests in the region and has been America's strategic partner in maintaining the peace and stability of this region," Lee said.
China's strong opposition to any attempt by Lee to reach an international audience is not uncommon.
Following Lee's highly publicized visit to his alma mater Cornell University in 1995, China slammed the door on developing cross-strait negotiations, using threats of a military attack and live missile firings to try to coerce Taiwan's voters to steer clear of Lee.
The threats didn't work. In the end, the US and Japan stepped up security measures in the region.
China has apparently not given up. At the beginning of January, Chinese foreign ministry officials said that Japan, the US and other unspecified countries should bar Lee from visiting after he steps down in May.
In his speech yesterday, Lee expressed his hope that China would move toward democracy and away from repression as Taiwan has done -- shifting over the past 13 years from authoritarian rule to democracy, with very little bloodshed and civil unrest.
"The [1996] ROC presidential election not only serves as a model of democratic development for the Chinese mainland, but also topples the myth of `Asian values' being incompatible with democracy," Lee said.
"In sharp contrast to Taiwan is the People's Republic of China, with its totalitarian rule, insistence on one-party rule, arrest and imprisonment of dissidents and suppression of human rights and religious freedom, including the Tibetan religion and the Falun Gong sect," he said.
On this issue, Lee took the opportunity to point out that it was in the common interest of both Taiwan and the US that China one day democratize.
Lee said: "We hope that in the future, all Chinese on the Chinese mainland will enjoy full religious and political freedoms, as well as the prosperity and benefits brought by a market economy."
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
‘SOMETHING SPECIAL’: Donald Trump vowed to reward his supporters, while President William Lai said he was confident the Taiwan-US partnership would continue Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the US early yesterday morning, an extraordinary comeback for a former president who was convicted of felony charges and survived two assassination attempts. With a win in Wisconsin, Trump cleared the 270 electoral votes needed to clinch the presidency. As of press time last night, The Associated Press had Trump on 277 electoral college votes to 224 for US Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party’s nominee, with Alaska, Arizona, Maine, Michigan and Nevada yet to finalize results. He had 71,289,216 votes nationwide, or 51 percent, while Harris had 66,360,324 (47.5 percent). “We’ve been through so