Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday lambasted the agreements reached at the economic forums held by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and said the forums "have been selling out Taiwan and they will continue to sell out Taiwan."
If the KMT wins the upcoming election, Hsieh said the communications set up between the two parties would become an official channel.
Without public oversight, interest groups and regional factions could participate in the forum and reach agreements with the CCP, leaving Ma with little alternative but to endorse them, he said.
PHOTO: CNA
With the KMT's legislative majority, the Taiwanese public would have no say on national policy, he said.
Under agreements reached at the forums Taiwan has invested more than NT$109 billion (US$3.5 billion) in China's experimental parks for cross-strait agricultural cooperation, but only NT$259 million in Taiwanese agricultural produce was exported to China in 2006, Hsieh said.
Hsieh said he was opposed to the "cross-strait common market" policy and thought it was strange that Ma ignored the "one China market" issue in his opening and closing remarks at Sunday's debate.
Hsieh said he suspected Ma did not have confidence in the policy.
In the debate Hsieh proposed putting the "cross-strait common market" policy to a referendum, urging voters who support the concept to vote for Ma and those who oppose it to vote for him.
Hsieh dismissed the policy as "irresponsible," saying that it was Ma's running mate, Vincent Siew (蕭萬長), not Hsieh who had coined the phrase "one China market."
Meanwhile, Hsieh attributed a slight decline in Ma's popularity to his opponent's performance during Sunday's debate.
A poll for the Chinese-language China Times placed the popularity of the DPP ticket at 22 percent, an increase of 1 percent from its previous survey, and that of the KMT ticket at 49 percent, a 4 percent decrease.
Another poll for the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday showed that Hsieh's popularity had increased from 18 percent to 22 percent after Sunday's debate, while Ma's slid from 55 percent to 52 percent.
The poll also found that 46 percent of the respondents considered that Ma won the debate, while 28 percent thought Hsieh the victor.
The China Times poll showed 43 percent of respondents said Ma did a better job, while 27 percent said Hsieh won the debate.
Hsieh said that a candidate's popularity constantly fluctuates and he paid little attention to polls.
He said the reason that Ma's approval rating had dropped was because he dodged questions on the "cross-strait common market" policy during the debate and frequently changed his position on issues when he came under pressure.
"I, on the other hand, have been consistent and did my best to explain and defend my policies," he said.
Another poll released by the Southern Taiwan Society yesterday showed that Ma had the support of 41 percent of respondents, while Hsieh was backed by 38 percent.
Commenting on the switch of allegiance of a taxi association linked with the pan-greens, Hsieh's campaign team yesterday dismissed it as a KMT election gambit.
Hsieh spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said that there were many taxi associations in the nation and they supported different candidates. He said the campaign team was attempting to speak with each of them and seek their support.
Meanwhile, Ma yesterday condemned Hsieh for creating the term "one China market" in order to attack him.
"The so-called `one China market' is a scarecrow created by Hsieh. He has spared no effort in attacking the scarecrow, but what he has created does not exist," Ma said yesterday during a visit to Penghu (澎湖).
Ma said he and KMT vice presidential candidate Vincent Siew (
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
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
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is
RSS