Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) said yesterday she had done her duty in promoting the World Games during a trip to China.
Chen told reporters at Kaohsiung City Council that the purpose of her trip was to promote the event and the interests of the residents of Kaohsiung and the people of Taiwan.
“The easiest choice for me would have been to drop the trip, but we need to enhance our visibility if Taiwan wants to to survive in this world and if we want to promote the World Games,” she said.
“As [mayor] of the host city, I’ve fulfilled my duty to welcome the states participating in the Games,” she said.
Chen said she would work to ensure the safety of all athletes at the Games and would respect all opinions as long as they are expressed peacefully, adding that she would not tolerate any violence.
Chen, who left for Beijing on Thursday, returned on Sunday night to cheers from her supporters and protests from a number of pro-independence groups unhappy with her trip.
The Taiwan Southern Society, the Taiwan Society Hakka and a number of pro-independence groups that had urged Chen to scrap the trip said they would boycott her re-election bid next year.
A member of “the 908 Taiwan Nation Movement” sitting in seats reserved for the public at the city council yesterday held up two posters criticizing Chen for not stating that Taiwan and China are two different countries while on her trip.
While meeting Beijing Mayor Guo Jinlong (郭金龍) last week, Chen mentioned “President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] of the central government,” winning praise from politicians across party lines in Taiwan.
Asked yesterday about the resulting criticism from some civic groups, Chen said she respected their opinions because Taiwan is a democracy.
However, she added, “I’m also an independence activist. I was imprisoned for my pro-independence beliefs,” she said.
She declined to comment on whether she thought that the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should adjust any of its China policies or that DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) should visit China.
Independent Kaohsiung City Councilor Hsu Kun-yuan (許崑源) praised Chen at yesterday’s council session and urged her to be “brave” in the face of criticism.
Meanwhile, Chen called on Department of Health Minister Yeh Ching-chuan (葉金川), who yesterday said Chen’s trip to China was a “betrayal” of Taiwan, to retract his comment.
“[Yeh’s attendance at] the Wolrd Health Assembly and my [trip to China] are completely different. He should shoulder responsibility for what happened there. I hope he will take back his criticism of me,” Chen said on the sidelines of the session.
Meanwhile, Tsai said the DPP’s engagement with China would focus on universal values such as human rights and democracy and not on political and economic interests.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY RICH CHANG
Two people were killed and another nine injured yesterday after being stung by hornets while hiking in New Taipei City’s Rueifang District (瑞芳), with officials warning against wearing perfume or straying from trails during the autumn to avoid the potentially deadly creatures. Seven of the hikers only sustained minor injuries after being stung along the Bafenliao Hiking Trail (八分寮) and made their way down the mountain with a guide, the New Taipei City Fire Department said. Four of them — all male — sustained more serious injuries and were assisted when leaving the mountain, the department said. Two of them, a man surnamed
Recent movements by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been “highly unusual,” but the military maintains a grasp of the situation, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said on Friday, after the military for the first time said it was monitoring troop movements in China’s Dacheng Bay (大埕灣). The minister gave the remarks to reporters before appearing at the legislature on the first day of its new session. The Ministry of National Defense on Thursday evening released an air force surveillance photograph of a PLA Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, and said it was monitoring the PLA Rocket Force and ground
‘ABNORMITY’: News of the military exercises on the coast of the Chinese province facing Taiwan were made public by the Ministry of National Defense on Thursday Taiwan’s military yesterday said it has detected the Chinese military initiating a round of exercises at a bay area in coastal Fujian Province, which faces Taiwan, since early yesterday morning and it has been closely monitoring the drills. The exercises being conducted at Fujian’s Dacheng Bay featured an undisclosed number of People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) warplanes, warships and ground troops, the Ministry of National Defense said in a press statement. The ministry did not disclose what kind of military exercises are being conducted there and for how long they would be happening, but it did say that it has been closely watching
China’s Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong has asked foreign consulates in Hong Kong to submit details of their local staff, which is more proof that the “one country, two systems” model no longer exists, a Taiwanese academic said. The office sent letters dated Monday last week to consulates in the territory, giving them one month to submit the information it requires. The move followed Beijing’s attempt to obtain floor plans for all properties used by foreign missions in Hong Kong last year, which raised concerns among diplomats that the information could be used for