Taiwan would confront the destabilizing forces working against democracies while strengthening cooperation with democratic nations, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said in Taipei yesterday at an event marking the 20th anniversary of the state-financed Taiwan Foundation for Democracy.
Democratic nations and the rules-based international community are confronting their “greatest challenge” since the Cold War, Tsai said.
Authoritarian regimes are mounting an effort to “corrode our democratic institutions and undermine human rights” in a bid to spread societal distrust and weaken public confidence in democracy, she said.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan is familiar with these efforts since the nation has long been exposed to Beijing’s threatening military exercises, economic coercion, cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns, she added.
Taiwanese are unbowed against the challenge of authoritarianism and fight it each day to preserve their democratic way of life, Tsai said, urging the world’s democracies to cooperate against the common threat.
“If we want to meet this challenge, we must work together as democracies to counter the tactics that authoritarian regimes use to undermine our institutions,” she said.
Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫?), who is chairman of the foundation, said Taiwanese must recover their democratic spirit to protect national sovereignty and democratic institutions from the authoritarian onslaught.
The nation did not obtain its vaunted status of being a democratic exemplar as a gift from the heavens, but through the “blood and tears” of democracy pioneers, he said.
The sphere of democracies has receded in a worrying trend over the past decade, with Beijing imposing its National Security Law on Hong Kong and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, You said, adding that democracy is declining globally according to Freedom House’s rankings last year.
The attacks on freedoms by authoritarian regimes and the failure of democratic consolidation are both to blame for the setbacks dealt to democracies across the world, he said.
Taiwan’s democracy is threatened by “military intimidation from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) externally, coupled with challenges arising from a historical legacy of authoritarian party-state education and cognitive warfare carried out by the CCP within Taiwan,” You said.
A free people with the will to defend themselves is the ultimate foundation of national defense and Taiwan must rediscover its democratic spirit to be truly secure, he said, calling for a global stance for freedom.
You expressed Taiwan’s solidarity with Ukraine, adding that both nations are on the front line of the struggle against authoritarianism and that Taiwanese would also defend universal values with their lives.
US National Endowment for Democracy president Damon Wilson, who presented Tsai with the endowment’s Democracy Service Medal, said China’s bid to coerce Taiwan is “part of a broader global assault on democracy.”
Defending freedom requires a coordinated and focused response from democracies, he said, adding that the world must stand in solidarity with Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression and Taiwan’s efforts to protect its democracy.
At the same, Taiwanese should be mindful that “democracy is [their] security,” Wilson said.
“As Taiwan deepens its democracy at home, it bolsters its own security,” he said.
US PUBLICATION: The results indicated a change in attitude after a 2023 survey showed 55 percent supported full-scale war to achieve unification, the report said More than half of Chinese were against the use of force to unify with Taiwan under any circumstances, a survey conducted by the Atlanta, Georgia-based Carter Center and Emory University found. The survey results, which were released on Wednesday in a report titled “Sovereignty, Security, & US-China Relations: Chinese Public Opinion,” showed that 55.1 percent of respondents agreed or somewhat agreed that “the Taiwan problem should not be resolved using force under any circumstances,” while 24.5 percent “strongly” or “somewhat” disagreed with the statement. The results indicated a change in attitude after a survey published in “Assessing Public Support for (Non)Peaceful Unification
The CIA has a message for Chinese government officials worried about their place in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) government: Come work with us. The agency released two Mandarin-language videos on social media on Thursday inviting disgruntled officials to contact the CIA. The recruitment videos posted on YouTube and X racked up more than 5 million views combined in their first day. The outreach comes as CIA Director John Ratcliffe has vowed to boost the agency’s use of intelligence from human sources and its focus on China, which has recently targeted US officials with its own espionage operations. The videos are “aimed at
STEADFAST FRIEND: The bills encourage increased Taiwan-US engagement and address China’s distortion of UN Resolution 2758 to isolate Taiwan internationally The Presidential Office yesterday thanked the US House of Representatives for unanimously passing two Taiwan-related bills highlighting its solid support for Taiwan’s democracy and global participation, and for deepening bilateral relations. One of the bills, the Taiwan Assurance Implementation Act, requires the US Department of State to periodically review its guidelines for engagement with Taiwan, and report to the US Congress on the guidelines and plans to lift self-imposed limitations on US-Taiwan engagement. The other bill is the Taiwan International Solidarity Act, which clarifies that UN Resolution 2758 does not address the issue of the representation of Taiwan or its people in
SHIFT: Taiwan’s better-than-expected first-quarter GDP and signs of weakness in the US have driven global capital back to emerging markets, the central bank head said The central bank yesterday blamed market speculation for the steep rise in the local currency, and urged exporters and financial institutions to stay calm and stop panic sell-offs to avoid hurting their own profitability. The nation’s top monetary policymaker said that it would step in, if necessary, to maintain order and stability in the foreign exchange market. The remarks came as the NT dollar yesterday closed up NT$0.919 to NT$30.145 against the US dollar in Taipei trading, after rising as high as NT$29.59 in intraday trading. The local currency has surged 5.85 percent against the greenback over the past two sessions, central
RSS