Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday highlighted the US-Japan security pact as the cornerstone of stability in East Asia and the DPP’s wish to strengthen Taiwan’s relations with Japan in a speech in Tokyo.
Japan “continues to occupy a special place in the emotions of the Taiwanese people,” the DPP’s presidential candidate told the Foreign Correspondents Club of Japan.
Tsai, who is in the middle of a three-day visit to Japan, emphasized four elements in Taiwan’s relationship with Japan: security, democracy, economy, and trade and travel, as well as other areas of interaction.
Photo: AFP
While Taiwan is not a formal partner in the Japan-US Security Alliance, Tsai said she believes it is important to “involve all parties, to communicate and dialogue, to manage territorial disputes in a peaceful and rational way, to ensure the freedom of navigation and to enhance transparency in military modernization” in the “cornerstone of peace and stability in East Asia.”
Closer economic ties with Japan would also help to prevent further marginalization and over-dependence on China economically, Tsai said, adding that it would be mutually beneficial if Taiwan were to join the APEC-based free-trade agreement or the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
She said that Taiwan and Japan share similar social and political challenges, such as the dominance of social and economic issues as key domestic themes and anti-nuclear awareness following the accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant in March.
She went on to detail her initiative of a “Taiwan consensus” — the starting point of her policy on China — highlighting it as an inclusive, democratic process.
Future Taiwan-China engagement should be based on a “new foundation” which is inclusive, she said,
Ultimately the DPP wants to ensure that “the right to determine Taiwan’s future rests in the hands of the people of Taiwan, and any change to the status quo must be agreed by the people of Taiwan through democratic means,” she said.
Any precondition for dialogue that is not transparent and not in line with the democratic consensus of Taiwanese would not be sufficient to deal with the complexities of the cross-strait relationship, Tsai said.
The DPP is not naive about the differences across the Strait, she said, but cross-strait engagement would not be a zero-sum game “as long as both sides are sincere about building a peaceful and stable framework for interaction.”
Tsai said her victory in the January presidential election over President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) would be “a demonstration of the progressiveness and openness of Taiwan’s society.”
In a speech to overseas Taiwanese on Monday, Tsai described the affinity and solid relations between Taiwanese and Japanese over the years as being a form of “Taiwan consensus.”
The DPP’s two main policies are that a “Taiwan consensus” is needed for Taiwan to develop its external relations, in particular relations with China, while domestically, social harmony and consolidation should be in place before the implementation of economic reforms, she said.
In response to a question from a Japanese student about a “Taiwan identity,” Tsai said that it is important to have a balanced education system so that people can be proud of being Taiwanese.
Being Taiwanese or Chinese is an option; it does not depend on ethnicity, social status or one’s educational background, she said, adding: “If people are proud of being Taiwanese, then they have Taiwanese identity in mind.”
Tsai said all territorial disputes between Taiwan and Japan should be resolved peacefully, since it would be very difficult to imagine that both sides would resort to force.
As an experienced negotiator, Tsai said, she proposes that both sides first negotiate on common interests, such as fishing rights and maritime development, and set the territorial disputes aside until later.
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
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