The Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presumptive presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) should specify which country she would like to lead, as her seeming refusal to recognize the existence of the Republic of China (ROC) in cross-strait relations throws the issue into confusion, opposition figures said yesterday.
Hung brought more controversy with her “one China, same interpretation” proposal when she said during an interview with Taiwan Television on Thursday night that the strategy was aimed at pressing China to recognize the existence of the “government” of the ROC, because “I can’t say that the ROC exists.”
A mention of the existence of the ROC would be tantamount to defining cross-strait relations as “state-to-state” relations, Hung said, a reference to what former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) had proposed in 1999.
Democratic Progressive Party spokesperson Juan Chao-hsiung (阮昭雄) yesterday asked Hung to clarify “which country she is running for.”
Hung’s “one China, same interpretation” is a “reckless” proposal that goes against mainstream opinion to “make the ROC nonexistent,” Juan said.
Given the fact that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has said he considered Hung’s “one China, same interpretation” identical to his proposal that Taiwan and China agree to the “one China” principle with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means, Ma should also clarify whether he finds Hung’s “no mention of the ROC” acceptable, Juan said.
Political activist Shih Ming-te (施明德), who has been seeking independent presidential candidacy, yesterday asked Hung not to run for president if there is no room for the ROC in her proposed cross-strait policy.
Shih said on Thursday night he was “pissed off” when he heard Hung’s views about her “one China, same interpretation” proposal.
“How can she say something like that?” Shih said. “If you can’t mention the ROC, please do not run for president of the ROC and please do not serve as deputy legislative speaker of the ROC.”
The New Power Party yesterday demanded a debate between its leader Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) and Hung on the “one China, same interpretation” proposal.
Hung’s proposal has denigrated the status of Taiwan and is detrimental to the nation’s sovereignty, the New Power Party said in a statement.
DEMOGRAPHICS: Robotics is the most promising answer to looming labor woes, the long-term care system and national contingency response, an official said Taiwan is to launch a five-year plan to boost the robotics industry in a bid to address labor shortages stemming from a declining and aging population, the Executive Yuan said yesterday. The government approved the initiative, dubbed the Smart Robotics Industry Promotion Plan, via executive order, senior officials told a post-Cabinet meeting news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s population decline would strain the economy and the nation’s ability to care for vulnerable and elderly people, said Peter Hong (洪樂文), who heads the National Science and Technology Council’s (NSTC) Department of Engineering and Technologies. Projections show that the proportion of Taiwanese 65 or older would
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said it is building nine new advanced wafer manufacturing and packaging factories this year, accelerating its expansion amid strong demand for high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The chipmaker built on average five factories per year from 2021 to last year and three from 2017 to 2020, TSMC vice president of advanced technology and mask engineering T.S. Chang (張宗生) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “We are quickening our pace even faster in 2025. We plan to build nine new factories, including eight wafer fabrication plants and one advanced
‘WORLD’S LOSS’: Taiwan’s exclusion robs the world of the benefits it could get from one of the foremost practitioners of disease prevention and public health, Minister Chiu said Taiwan should be allowed to join the World Health Assembly (WHA) as an irreplaceable contributor to global health and disease prevention efforts, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. He made the comment at a news conference in Taipei, hours before a Taiwanese delegation was to depart for Geneva, Switzerland, seeking to meet with foreign representatives for a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the WHA, the WHO’s annual decisionmaking meeting, which would be held from Monday next week to May 27. As of yesterday, Taiwan had yet to receive an invitation. Taiwan has much to offer to the international community’s
RSS