Taiwanese have the right to build a democratic, sovereign nation based on the protection of human rights and freedom, President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday said in his keynote address at the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) National Congress in Taipei.
Lai, who is also the DPP’s chairman, presented three key tasks for party members to focus on: bolstering national identity based on Taiwan sovereignty, deepening democratic values based on the constitutional framework and safeguarding human rights and freedom.
“Voters have handed the heavy responsibility of governing this country to the DPP, because they wish for the DPP to continue leading Taiwan into the future,” Lai said.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
“Taking control of government should not be for personal benefit, but to realize our shared ideals and values, to achieve them for our nation and its citizens,” he said.
“Taiwan is the mother for all of us, and we have the right to build our democratic ... nation,” Lai said.
Lai stressed the need to make a clean break from the past when Taiwan was under the authoritarian rule of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
“Taiwan’s democracy activists in the early years shed blood, with some sacrificing their lives to expose the lies — the KMT’s mistaken idea of ‘using Taiwan as a base to retake China,’” he said.
Now government policies that put Taiwan first must be implemented, Lai said.
“The DPP has the responsibility to unite the people, to oppose annexation by China and to safeguard national sovereignty,” he said.
The DPP would put all of its effort into ensuring Taiwanese to know their nation’s history and culture, “for the 23 million people of Taiwan to forge a collective national identity, [with] a common destiny in this homeland,” Lai said.
“We must ensure that national identity does not become the basis for outside forces to create internal strife and conflict,” he added.
Lai also reminded party members how the DPP was established during the 1980s.
“The DPP was born ... during the authoritarian one-party state era. The party founders insisted on clean politics and railed against corruption, holding onto the spirit of loving this homeland of ours, and standing together with the common people,” Lai said.
“In doing so, we ... challenged martial law, breaking through the KMT government’s ban against establishing new political parties and the ban against newspapers and media,” he said, referring to publications that were not under state control.
Together with democracy advocates, the DPP fought for 100 percent freedom of expression, and pushed for parliamentary reforms, to phase out legislators elected to represent provinces of China and have more representatives of cities and counties of Taiwan, Lai said, adding that the party also demanded that people should vote directly for the president.
At the congress, party members would vote to elect new executives, and place new members on party committees, Lai said.
“This means the DPP is officially entering into a new era, during a time when Taiwan is facing greater challenges from within and from external forces,” he said.
“We expect the party’s new working teams to take up this greater burden... We must unite to exert power and strength at critical times to lead Taiwan forward on the path of democracy,” he said.
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) did not attend the congress yesterday as she had a personal commitment.
Almost all of the party’s major members were present, including former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
RSS