President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday lauded the late president Chiang Ching-kuo’s (蔣經國) efforts in paving the way for cross-strait exchanges and vowed to continue improving cross-strait relations.
“Late president Chiang made the first step to unfreeze cross-strait relations by allowing the public to visit relatives in mainland China,” Ma said at the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) headquarters, adding that “cross-strait relations over the past 10 months are at their most peaceful” in the past six decades.
Ma was speaking at a forum on Chiang’s legacy, the first of a series of activities organized by the KMT and the Presidential Office to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Chiang’s birth.
Chiang family members and former officials under his administration, including daughter-in-law Chiang Fang Chih-yi (蔣方智怡), son KMT Legislator John Chiang (蔣孝嚴), former premier Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村) and former Control Yuan president Frederick Chien (錢復), were present at the forum yesterday.
Ma, who once served as Chiang Ching-kuo’s English secretary, praised him as a politician with vision and wisdom. He said Chiang’s decision to lift martial law, relax restrictions on visiting relatives in China, remove the ban on forming political parties and initiate major infrastructure projects paved the way for democratic reform and helped create an economic miracle.
“Taiwan would not be a developed country today if not for Mr. Ching-kuo’s policies and former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) efforts to continue his unfinished goal of making Taiwan a democratic country,” he said.
Saying that Chiang Ching-kuo dedicated his life to developing Taiwan, Ma pledged to follow in the late president’s footsteps and seek the best for Taiwanese based on the “Taiwan-centric” concept.
Before the start of the forum, Ma visited the KMT’s party history room to view photos and historical documents of Chiang Ching-kuo and other KMT leaders.
Former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰), who is currently visiting China, issued a statement praising the late president yesterday, and dismissed concerns that the party was deifying Chiang Ching-kuo through the activities.
“The late president Chiang brought democracy and wealth to Taiwan ... We are not trying to deify him because it is unnecessary. We are reflecting on ourselves through these events,” he said.
Chiang Ching-kuo took over the presidency in 1978. He died in 1988, a year after the lifting of martial law.
Historica Sinica will hold an exhibition through Sept. 13 in commemoration of Chiang Ching-kuo.
Chiang Ching-kuo’s English-language biographer, Jay Taylor, will speak at a forum today at Eslite Bookstore in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義).
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
Many Japanese couples are coming to Taiwan to obtain donated sperm or eggs for fertility treatment due to conservatism in their home country, Taiwan’s high standards and low costs, doctors said. One in every six couples in Japan is receiving infertility treatment, Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare data show. About 70,000 children are born in Japan every year through in vitro fertilization (IVF), or about one in every 11 children born. Few people accept donated reproductive cells in Japan due to a lack of clear regulations, leaving treatment in a “gray zone,” Taichung Nuwa Fertility Center medical director Wang Huai-ling (王懷麟)
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
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