President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday expressed his confidence in the country’s ability to survive the financial crisis and urged Taiwanese to transcend their differences while working together to overcome the difficulties.
“I know that people are suffering from the slow economy, but Taiwan will remain a promising place as long as Taiwanese don’t give up,” Ma said while addressing the 2008 National Prayer Breakfast in Taiwan at the Taipei International Convention Center.
“With the wisdom and fighting spirit of its people, I believe the country will survive the financial crisis,” he said.
Speaking about social change and the transformation of the country, Ma referred to the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American US president and called on Taiwanese to coexist.
“We can be different and still get along harmoniously,” he said.
Ma promised to answer people’s expectations by establishing a clean government and pushing for a peaceful cross-strait relationship.
Democratic Progressive Party Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who declined Ma’s invitation for a meeting to discuss national issues and confrontations between the blue and green camps, also attended the event.
Although Ma shook hands with Tsai immediately after arriving at the event, the two, who were at the same table, did not exchange words.
Ma and Tsai declined to comment on whether they would hold a meeting.
Addressing the opening ceremony of IT Month at the Taipei World Trade Center later yesterday, Ma said he was confident in the country’s economic outlook, adding that the government is determined to overcome the financial crisis.
Referring to publications such as Business Week and The Economist, Ma said that Taiwan continued to be very competitive globally in the IT industry and called on the public to have faith in the country’s economic strength.
“We have no reason to be pessimistic,” Ma said.
“In these difficult economic times, we must complete the necessary reforms [so that we can] rise when the economy recovers,” he said.
The president defended the Cabinet’s policies to issue consumer vouchers and subsidize unemployed citizens, and vowed to lead the country out of the financial crisis with “speedy, substantial and sustainable” policies.
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
RSS