Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) vice presidential candidate Su Tseng-chang (
"It took a long time to build the ship of democracy in Taiwan. We cannot sail it to somebody else's harbor," he said.
Su said it took generations to make direct presidential elections a reality in Taiwan.
Kosovo has about 2 million people who are determined to be their own masters and build a new nation, while Taiwan has 23 million people and has a solid democratic foundation, he said.
Although the DPP suffered heavy losses in the legislative elections on Jan. 12, Su said the presidential election on March 22 would be the last line of defense for Taiwan's sovereignty.
The public must elect a candidate who is capable, loves Taiwan and is determined to protect the country's sovereignty, he said.
"We are calling on voters to help preserve democratic politics and the fundamental value of checks and balances," he said.
Su made the remarks while visiting a temple in Chiayi County yesterday morning.
Kosovo declared independence on Sunday in a historic bid for statehood in defiance of Serbian and Russian opposition.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday also congratulated Kosovo on its independence and said Taiwan looks forward to fostering ties with any country that upholds the universal values of democracy, freedom and peace.
In an official press release, MOFA touted Kosovars and said self-determination was a right recognized by the UN and that the people should be the masters of their nation's fate.
In no way should the independence of one nation be denied by another, it said.
Despite a multitude of barriers, the release said, the people of Kosovo have insisted on an ideal they believe in, which is to peacefully pursue independence without being threatened or scared away.
China reacted angrily on Monday to MOFA's statement, saying Taiwan had no right to offer an opinion on the subject.
"It is known to all that as a part of China, Taiwan has no right or eligibility to give any so-called `recognition' [to Kosovo]," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao (
Additional reporting by AFP
LOUD AND PROUD Taiwan might have taken a drubbing against Australia and Japan, but you might not know it from the enthusiasm and numbers of the fans Taiwan might not be expected to win the World Baseball Classic (WBC) but their fans are making their presence felt in Tokyo, with tens of thousands decked out in the team’s blue, blowing horns and singing songs. Taiwanese fans have packed out the Tokyo Dome for all three of their games so far and even threatened to drown out home team supporters when their team played Japan on Friday. They blew trumpets, chanted for their favorite players and had their own cheerleading squad who dance on a stage during the game. The team struggled to match that exuberance on the field, with
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. The single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 400,000 and 800,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, saber-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Taiwanese paleontologists have discovered fossil evidence that pythons up to 4m long inhabited Taiwan during the Pleistocene epoch, reporting their findings in the international scientific journal Historical Biology. National Taiwan University (NTU) Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology associate professor Tsai Cheng-hsiu (蔡政修) led the team that discovered the largest snake fossil ever found in Taiwan. A single trunk vertebra was discovered in Tainan at the Chiting Formation, dated to between 800,000 to 400,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene, the paper said. The area also produced Taiwan’s first avian fossil, as well as crocodile, mammoth, sabre-toothed cat and rhinoceros fossils, it said. Discoveries
Whether Japan would help defend Taiwan in case of a cross-strait conflict would depend on the US and the extent to which Japan would be allowed to act under the US-Japan Security Treaty, former Japanese minister of defense Satoshi Morimoto said. As China has not given up on the idea of invading Taiwan by force, to what extent Japan could support US military action would hinge on Washington’s intention and its negotiation with Tokyo, Morimoto said in an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) yesterday. There has to be sufficient mutual recognition of how Japan could provide
RSS