US President George W. Bush and congressional Democrats locked horns on Tuesday on whether Americans are safe from terrorism, part of a calculated effort by both parties to capitalize on the coming anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks and gain the upper hand in this year's election debate over national security.
The White House released an updated version of its national security strategy, concluding that "America is safer, but we are not yet safe." Bush, speaking to military officers, delivered the second in a series of speeches on global terror. And yesterday he planned to deliver a third in the East Room of the White House, where he will propose new legislation on bringing terror detainees to trial.
The bill is in response to a Supreme Court ruling that deemed unconstitutional the military commissions that Bush originally proposed. Late on Tuesday, presidential aides were briefing lawmakers about the proposal. The plan is part of a broader effort to seize the initiative on politically delicate issues regarding the handling of terror suspects, including new rules for interrogation techniques.
On Capitol Hill, Senate Democrats released their own report, which asserts that Americans are less safe now than they were five years ago, and brought out Wesley Clark, the retired general and 2004 presidential candidate, to trumpet it. In an interview, Clark said he was trying to help Democrats "articulate a strong and successful national security position, so that people can understand that Democrats can and will succeed in protecting the nation."
The dueling appearances laid bare a central fact about the changing politics of Sept. 11: Five years ago there was a period of bipartisanship, which has evolved into a bitter partisan brawl over the course Bush has pursued since then, especially in invading Iraq. This week's politicking would have been unthinkable four years ago, but both sides openly embraced it on Tuesday.
Within hours of Bush's speech, the Democratic Senate leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, and the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Charles Schumer of New York, were holed up in the Capitol, plotting strategy for the remainder of the week.
"We are not going to let the Republicans occupy the high ground on this issue," Schumer said, "particularly when we believe the American people are not happy with the policies in Iraq or in general on terrorism."
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