Urging a return to "rational" problem-solving, People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong yesterday defended his decision not to attend Saturday's march, adding that he was in "no rush" to meet with President Chen Shui-bian (
"Now that China's `Anti-Secession' Law has already been ratified and the March 19 and March 26 rallies have been held, everyone should let their emotions cool down and rationally think about solutions to our problems," Soong said yesterday.
Joining the debate over the number of people who attended the March 26 rally, Soong hedged his bets, saying that the number was likely fewer than the 1 million participants claimed by the Democratic Progressive Party, but also greater than Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou's (
The point, Soong said, is not the number of people that participated, but to realize that the common purpose of all the marches -- shared by those who did not attend -- is to express that the Taiwanese people want peace and democracy.
Many people, including himself, did not attend the rallies, Soong said, not because they opposed supporting the dignity of Taiwan or the continued pursuit of the truth behind the shooting of Chen and Vice President Annette Lu (
Commenting on the debate as to whether the content of the controversial public letter by Chi Mei Group founder and presidential adviser Hsu Wen-long (
"China was compelled to create the `Anti-Secession' Law by Taiwan, and Taiwan was compelled to hold the 326 march because of China. Similarly, we `forced' Hsu to write this letter," Soong said yesterday, adding that the "greater environment" is to blame for the contents of the letter.
A situation in which the government cannot protect the people and thus forces individuals like Hsu to speak out, said Soong, is truly a "tragedy for the Taiwanese people" and should also be a matter for self-reflection within the government.
Hsu, who has previously been associated with pro-independence factions, published a letter on Saturday in a Chinese-language newspaper saying that both sides of the Taiwan Strait belonged to "one China," and that he opposed Taiwan's independence movement.
Soong also talked about a rumored second meeting with Chen.
"If meeting [with Chen] can solve problems, then we should meet, the earlier the better. If everyone still has doubts, then it is better to meet after thinking this through. So I am in no rush and I am not pushing for this," Soong said.
To facilitate cross-party cooperation, Soong met with Chen earlier this year. Since that meeting on Feb. 24, it has been rumored that a second Chen-Soong summit is in the works. However, Soong's attitude yesterday appeared to belie the supposed friendly relations between the PFP and the administation since the meeting.
Meanwhile, Chen is open to holding a second meeting with Soong, Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday.
Chen is willing to meet Soong for a second time if the PFP chairman agrees to the idea and the president will fully respect Soong's opinion on how, when and where the meeting should be arranged, Yu said.
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
‘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
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
RSS