The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) delegation that has traveled to China to push for cooperation and reconciliation with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is "seemingly deranged with regard to space and time," President Chen Shui-bian (
"It is unimaginable that this could happen at this time, when Taiwan is already implementing democratic and Constitutional rule. What [accord] could possibly be achieved through KMT-CCP co-operation?" Chen asked. His remarks yesterday were his first public comments about the KMT delegation's visit to China.
Headed by KMT Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kun (
In reference to Chiang's trip, Chen said "recently `someone' has traveled to the other side of the Strait to push for `reconciliation between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party' ... the situation seems to be out of place and time, as if they had turned the clock back 60 to 80 years ago, when the two parties were trying to find common ground."
"It is now 2005. We have entered the 21st century, and a country can only progress by moving forward and not backpedalling. Is it right then to go back to 1945, 1935 or 1925?" Chen asked rhetorically, alluding to previous periods of KMT-CCP cooperation in the 1920s and during World War II.
"Taiwan has implemented democratic and constitutional rule. Can we now put a party above the nation?" Chen said in a speech delivered at the inauguration of an educational institute hosted by the National Youth Commission (青輔會) "Is it possible that we are supposed to return to the old days and do what the Chinese Communist Party still does: Let a party keep an iron grip on the government and the military?"
Chen said that "placing our hope in the people and upholding the principle of `Taiwan first' are the correct and best choices to make."
Chen told the audience of young people that the biggest difference between the two sides of the Strait was not about governments, but about different lifestyles and social systems, saying that it boiled down to "democracy versus communism and peace versus threats."
"Like a divided house that cannot stand, if we can't unite among ourselves, we are then a divided country," Chen said.
"If we can't unite but continue to stay divided in a dichotomy of pan-blues and pan-greens, do we need more of the Anti-Secession Law? Our own country will fall apart first, even without the Anti-Secession Law," the president said. He added that "only a united Taiwan can stabilize cross-strait relations."
Touching upon last Saturday's demonstration denouncing the enactment of the Anti-Secession Law, the president took the opportunity to explain the significance of the march, in which hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets.
The march was significant because the motivation behind the event was the people and not politicians, Chen said, adding that political figures, including himself and Premier Frank Hsieh (
"The 326 March for Democracy and Peace was a bona fide international press conference, not my own nor any person's press conference," Chen said. "A million people marched in the streets and, via their action, showed the world their determination to safeguard Taiwan's democracy and peace, as well as their opposition to Beijing's law."
"It was the best international press conference and the entire international media saw, heard and reported it," he said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
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