Taiwanese-independence advocates yesterday accused former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of breaking national security laws and called on the judiciary to investigate after his statement that “China will wage a battle, which will be quick and will be the last battle for Taiwan.”
Ma showed his true colors “as a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party” in his speech on Monday when he said the “first battle will be the last,” Taiwan Republic Office (台灣國辦公室) director Chilly Chen (陳峻涵) said.
“Ma is threatening Taiwanese by claiming that Beijing will launch a quick invasion of Taiwan, but that the US military will have no time and no chance to come to Taiwan’s aid,” Chen said.
Photo: Jason Pan, Taipei Times
Chen and other protesters called Ma “a bootlicker” of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and a colluder with an enemy state, seeking to sell out Taiwan.
At the protest in front of Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) headquarters in Taipei, Taiwan Republic Office members performed a skit in which Chen, wearing a Ma mask, acted as if he were committing hara-kiri.
“We are asking Ma to perform hara-kiri as a public apology to our citizens for selling out Taiwan... We cannot accept Ma’s talk of capitulation — and that coming from a former president, who is now a propagandist for China and coerces the Taiwanese to surrender to China without a fight,” Chen said.
Members from the Taiwan Independence Party (建國黨), the Nation Building Forum (建國廣場) and a youth group advocating Taiwan’s liberation from colonial powers also joined the protest.
The demonstrators called on KMT Chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) to revoke Ma’s party membership and urged the judiciary to investigate Ma for colluding with China to sabotage Taiwan’s national security, breaching the Anti-Infiltration Act (反滲透法) and possible leaking of military secrets.
“Ma’s talks show that he has no comprehension of modern warfare, but he is undermining the confidence of Taiwan’s military and its ability to defend our homeland, while wrecking Taiwan’s chances of forming an alliance with other democratic nations to counter China’s warmongering and hegemony in the Asia-Pacific,” Chen said.
“We are not surprised at all because Ma — coming from the KMT one-party state — has fought democratic values and people’s right to self-determination and is always seen cowering in the face of Chinese aggression,” he added.
Other protesters presented documents and news reports in which the former president and KMT lawmakers stalled legislative sessions 69 times from 2008 to 2016, eventually blocking three major arms deals with the US.
During Ma’s presidency, he tried to end the development of indigenous missiles at Taiwan’s top weapons research institutes, they added.
Taipei City Councilor Wang Shih-chien (王世堅) of the Democratic Progressive Party said that Ma speaks as if he is the head of a Chinese state media outlet.
“Now Ma is showing the world where his loyalties lie, and since he left the presidency, Ma has acted as a propagandist for China and no longer pretends to act in Taiwan’s best interests,” Wang said.
Three cases of Candida auris, a fungus that can cause a yeast infection known as candidiasis in humans, have been reported in Taiwan over the past few years, but they did not display drug resistance, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said yesterday. Lo made the statement at a news conference in Taipei, one day after the Washington Post reported that the potentially deadly fungus is spreading in US hospitals. The fungus was first discovered in Japan in 2009 and poses a danger to immunocompromised people, with an estimated mortality rate of 30 to 60 percent, Lo
SWITCH TO BEIJING: The government severed diplomatic relations about an hour after Honduras announced the move, saying that no semi-official ties would be maintained Taiwan severed diplomatic ties with Honduras and ended all cooperation with the Central American country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, about an hour and a half after the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Twitter at 8am Taiwan time that the nation would cut its ties with Taiwan. Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Wednesday sent Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina to Beijing to negotiate the establishment of diplomatic relations. She announced the plan on March 14 on Twitter. “To safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty and dignity, Taiwan is terminating diplomatic ties with Honduras with immediate effect” after communication with
MEDIA, SOCIETY FOCUS: Doublethink Lab said that Beijing is trying to coerce countries that rely on China economically to pursue policies in its favor China has stronger influence over Taiwan’s media and society than any other country, the Taipei-based Doublethink Lab think tank said yesterday, as it announced its China Index gauging Beijing’s global influence. Taiwan ranked 11th overall among 82 countries assessed, but first in terms of social and media influence, Doublethink Lab chairman Puma Shen (沈伯洋) told a news conference in Taipei. More than 200 experts and academics participated in the project, including some highly influential figures, Shen said. The index collects information from countries worldwide to gauge China’s influence and assess how Chinese policies affect them, Shen said. In terms of Chinese
TRADE MISSION: After Fijian elections in December last year, pro-democratic parties formed a coalition and overruled a name change imposed by the former government The Taipei Trade Office in Fiji has been restored to its former name, the Trade Mission of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the Republic of Fiji, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Fiji on Friday last week issued a note verbale to the office saying that the name change was retroactively effective from March 15, Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Director-General Wallace Chow (周民淦) told a news conference in Taipei. The mission’s diplomatic privileges have been reinstated as stipulated in Fiji’s Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities Act, which was enacted in 1971, Chow said. Taiwan set up a trade
RSS