Financial information on presidential candidates released by the Central Election Commission last Friday, has provided fodder for a new round of aggressive verbal attacks by the three major candidates.
DPP presidential candidate Chen Shui-bian (
Soong has been dishonest with voters by saying he lacks funds, said Chen, while actually having more than NT$1.7 billion in assets, much of it abroad.
Chen then promised to run an "honest, simple, and stable" government if elected.
Chen went on to question Lien Chan's cross-strait policy, asking if Lien planned to back away from President Lee Teng-hui's (
He also wanted to know if Lien was willing to enter into talks with Jiang Zemin (
Lien responded later in the day by saying that he has never put forth a proposal for a confederation with China, and would not do so unless the people of Taiwan reached a consensus on the issue.
Lien Chan has yet to publicize his cross-strait policy.
A popular talk show provided another venue for candidates to publicize their views and criticize competitors yesterday.
Soong and Chen were interviewed in Taiwan via satellite hookup on a special show for the TVBS "2100 Call-In" program broadcast from Los Angeles.
Soong said in the interview that it seemed to him the campaign platforms for the three main contenders were only superficially the same.
In fact, he said, there was a world of difference between their competing views.
Soong criticized Chen for failing to publicly confirm which country's presidency he was running for.
Soong said Chen still wanted de facto independence for Taiwan and continued to deny the legality of the Republic of China.
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
A global survey showed that 60 percent of Taiwanese had attained higher education, second only to Canada, the Ministry of the Interior said. Taiwan easily surpassed the global average of 43 percent and ranked ahead of major economies, including Japan, South Korea and the US, data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for 2024 showed. Taiwan has a high literacy rate, data released by the ministry showed. As of the end of last year, Taiwan had 20.617 million people aged 15 or older, accounting for 88.5 percent of the total population, with a literacy rate of 99.4 percent, the data
CCP ‘PAWN’? Beijing could use the KMT chairwoman’s visit to signal to the world that many people in Taiwan support the ‘one China’ principle, an academic said Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday arrived in China for a “peace” mission and potential meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), while a Taiwanese minister detailed the number of Chinese warships currently deployed around the nation. Cheng is visiting at a time of increased Chinese military pressure on Taiwan, as the opposition-dominated Legislative Yuan stalls a government plan for US$40 billion in extra defense spending. Speaking to reporters before going to the airport, Cheng said she was going on a “historic journey for peace,” but added that some people felt uneasy about her trip. “If you truly love Taiwan,
AIR ALERT: China’s reservation of airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea could be an attempt to test the US’ response ahead of a Trump-Xi meeting, the NSB head said China’s attempts to infiltrate Taiwan are systematic, planned and targeted, with activity shifting from recruiting mid-level military officers to rank-and-file enlisted personnel, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) integrates national security, intelligence operations and “united front” efforts into a dense network to conduct intelligence gathering and espionage in Taiwan, Tsai said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee. It uses specific networks to screen targets through exchange activities and recruiting local collaborators to establish intelligence-gathering organizations, he said. China is also shifting who it targets to lower-ranking military personnel,
RSS