Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) yesterday predicted at the Taiwan Solidarity Union's (TSU) national congress that the party, of which he is the spiritual leader, has a good chance of boosting its number of Legislative Yuan members to 50 by 2007. This would be expected, he said, under the current favorable international situation where China is preoccupied with its own growing domestic problems while the US continues its war on terrorism.
Lee, who founded the TSU in 2001, said that the party has promising prospects to expand its presence in the legislature as, to his mind, there wouldn't be any major cross-strait conflicts by 2007 because the Chinese leadership is preoccupied with internal power struggles ahead of the Communist Party's 17th National Congress.
PHOTO: SEAN CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
The small party currently holds 12 legislative seats and is aiming to enlarge that number to 30 at the legislative elections at the end of the year.
Lee said it does not matter whether US President George W. Bush or his challenger John Kerry becomes the next US president, America will still continue with its anti-terrorism strategies, making Middle East problems a critical item on its foreign policy agenda and cross-strait relations a less urgent issue to grapple with.
Lee said that, in the run-up to 2007, China will be facing a series of domestic problems including the decrease of economic growth, labor problems and power struggles ahead of the Chinese Communist Party's 17th National Congress, which altogether will leave Beijing too preoccupied to take further hostile action against Taiwan.
"China, like I used to put it, is just a barking dog that doesn't bite. From 1996 to 2000, it had constantly threatened to use force against Taiwan in an attempt to influence Taiwan's presidential elections. But they never succeeded. This year, we saw China almost unable to do anything for the same purpose.
"Given the future development of China's domestic situation and international relations, it will be to Taiwan's advantage to exert its strategic leverage more freely," Lee said yesterday.
Lee also endorsed the announcement of the party's campaign platform which aims to create a new constitution for Taiwan through a national referendum.
A long-term goal to be achieved, Lee said the TSU is capable of increasing its legislative seats to 50 by 2007, as a change in the political landscape has taken place since the March 20 presidential election.
"A Taiwan-centered consciousness has begun to take root in Taiwanese society, while the party-state institution run by the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime has been terminated. The opposition parties, which staged the post-election protests from March 20 to May 20, reflected their ignorance of this trend. They claimed to deal with China in peace while advocating unification, but, as a matter of fact, Taiwan has become an independent and sovereign country after March 20," Lee said.
Apart from pushing a campaign platform to create a new Taiwan constitution and change the official title of the country to Taiwan, Lee urged TSU members to propagandize the party's policies in education, public safety, the economy and national defense, and their relevance to Taiwan-centered values and interests.
Meanwhile, the former president, a member of the Presbyterian church, advised the TSU to boost its ties with Taiwan's Aboriginals, including extending support to Aboriginal communities through church-based networks, as well as cultivating support from Mainlanders.
TSU Chairman Huang Chu-wen (黃主文) yesterday said in order to achieve the goal of boosting public support for a Taiwanese national identity by 2008, the TSU and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will work together to enlarge this political force in Taiwan.
The TSU and DPP will cooperate and compete with each other in the year-end legislative elections in order to ultimately harvest a comprehensive victory, Huang said.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
REGIONAL STABILITY: Taipei thanked the Biden administration for authorizing its 16th sale of military goods and services to uphold Taiwan’s defense and safety The US Department of State has approved the sale of US$228 million of military goods and services to Taiwan, the US Department of Defense said on Monday. The state department “made a determination approving a possible Foreign Military Sale” to the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the US for “return, repair and reshipment of spare parts and related equipment,” the defense department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a news release. Taiwan had requested the purchase of items and services which include the “return, repair and reshipment of classified and unclassified spare parts for aircraft and related equipment; US Government
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from
RSS