President Chen Shui-bian (
"Lien has given us many different versions of his stance on the cross-strait relationship issue, but he has never told the public which one of his avowed beliefs is the truth," Chen said during a campaign activity in Taipei City yesterday.
The president said Lien had approved of former president Lee Teng-hui's (
"Now he even asks the people of the country to accept his idea of `putting aside sovereignty' to negotiate with China," Chen said.
"Moreover, his running mate, Soong, once advocated the `one China' theory, which stated that Taiwan is a part of China, as well as a `quasi-international relationship' to describe the cross-strait status quo in the 2000 presidential election," Chen said.
Chen reminded the public that Lien at once severely criticized Soong for his advocacy of "capitulation."
"Lien even called Soong an opportunist who would absolutely sell out Taiwan if he won the presidential election," Chen said.
"Those two politicians, who apparently have no concrete dedication to their country, are now hand-in-hand and want to run for head of state," he said. "How can we trust them?"
Chen stressed that his commitment to protect Taiwan's sovereignty remains unchanged, while his opponents had always been inconsistent on this issue.
"Anything but the nation's sovereignty can be put aside," said Chen.
During last week's TV debate, Lien said that both sides should put aside sovereignty issues and precede with negotiating administrative affairs in response to one of Chen's questions about how to meet a timetable for establishing direct links, in light of Beijing's "one China" principle.
Chen attacked Lien for giving up Taiwan's sovereignty, saying that such an approach was hazardous.
Lien has said over the past few days that Chen viciously misinterpreted his remarks.
"What I was saying is that both sides should put aside those issues related to the sovereignty dispute and focus on those negotiations touching on administrative affairs," Lien said during yesterday's campaign activity.
"Chen Shui-bian is just playing his old trick of putting a label on me," Lien said.
However, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday kept attacking Lien's phrase "putting aside sovereignty," saying that its presidential campaign headquarters was prepared to make 100,000 VCD copies of the TV debate to distribute to the public.
"We believe that they can make their own judgment after watching the VCD," said DPP Department of Information and Culture Deputy Director Cheng Wen-tsan (
Meanwhile, Chen yesterday announced that Nobel laureate and Academia Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh (
"Nine influential figures from different fields have promised to join the task force and Lee Yuan-tseh will be its convener," Chen said, adding that the task force will begin formal operations after March 20.
Chen vowed last Friday to form a task force to create a "peace and stability framework for cross-strait interaction," which is a part of the second question of the referendum.
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
RSS