The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday accused Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) of treating the Legislative Yuan with disdain and demanded that he apologize or step down for saying that KMT Legislator Chen Yu-jen (陳玉珍) is unfit for her job.
Prior to a question-and-answer session at the legislature on Tuesday, Su was asked by reporters to comment on Chen’s remark on Monday that Taiwan is not a country.
“Then she is not qualified to be a lawmaker,” the premier said.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Chen made the remark during a question-and-answer session with Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chen Ming-tong (陳明通), when she asked him about his view on the “growing anti-China sentiment” among the public.
“The crux of the matter is that Beijing refuses to acknowledge the ROC [Republic of China] or renounce the use of force to achieve its goal of unification with Taiwan,” the minister said, urging Chen Yu-jen to call on Beijing to acknowledge the ROC’s existence.
“Without a doubt we are a country... However, I must stress that the ROC is a country; Taiwan is not,” the lawmaker said.
The KMT caucus said in a statement that Su should apologize to all legislators or resign, as he has treated the legislature and the Constitution with disdain.
Su should be condemned for exploiting the issue of the nation’s title, touching a raw nerve as the nation strives to contain the COVID-19 pandemic, the caucus added.
KMT caucus secretary-general Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) asked Su whether he is the premier of the ROC or the “Taiwan Republic.”
The Democratic Progressive Party’s words do not match its actions, as four years after winning a legislative majority and reclaiming the Presidential Office, the party has not pushed for a constitutional amendment to change the nation’s title, Chiang said.
The national identification cards of Kinmen County residents show their place of birth as “Fujian Province,” said Chen Yu-jen, who represents the county, adding that Su continually talks about “Taiwan” as if Kinmen residents were orphans.
“For the DPP, every day is April Fool’s Day, because without officially changing the nation’s title through a constitutional amendment, it is only fooling the public,” she said.
“Su’s remarks struck a chord with many Taiwanese,” President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday when asked by reporters to comment on the issue.
“The Republic of China, Taiwan” has the broadest consensus among people and hopefully this consensus would continue to grow, she said, adding that the nation has found strength in unity in its fight against the coronavirus, a unity that would hopefully persist.
“Is Taiwan not a country?” Executive Yuan spokeswoman Kolas Yotaka said. “Taiwan is a sovereign nation whose constitutional title is the ROC. This is the consensus of the majority of the public and how most people identify the nation.”
The Executive Yuan respects KMT legislators’ various viewpoints, but has no comment on calls for the premier to step down, she said.
Additional reporting by Su Yung-yao and Lee Hsin-fang
GREAT POWER COMPETITION: Beijing views its military cooperation with Russia as a means to push back against the joint power of the US and its allies, an expert said A recent Sino-Russian joint air patrol conducted over the waters off Alaska was designed to counter the US military in the Pacific and demonstrated improved interoperability between Beijing’s and Moscow’s forces, a national security expert said. National Defense University associate professor Chen Yu-chen (陳育正) made the comment in an article published on Wednesday on the Web site of the Journal of the Chinese Communist Studies Institute. China and Russia sent four strategic bombers to patrol the waters of the northern Pacific and Bering Strait near Alaska in late June, one month after the two nations sent a combined flotilla of four warships
THE TOUR: Pope Francis has gone on a 12-day visit to Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore. He was also invited to Taiwan The government yesterday welcomed Pope Francis to the Asia-Pacific region and said it would continue extending an invitation for him to visit Taiwan. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs made the remarks as Pope Francis began a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific on Monday. He is to travel about 33,000km by air to visit Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore, and would arrive back in Rome on Friday next week. It would be the longest and most challenging trip of Francis’ 11-year papacy. The 87-year-old has had health issues over the past few years and now uses a wheelchair. The ministry said
TAIWANESE INNOVATION: The ‘Seawool’ fabric generates about NT$200m a year, with the bulk of it sourced by clothing brands operating in Europe and the US Growing up on Taiwan’s west coast where mollusk farming is popular, Eddie Wang saw discarded oyster shells transformed from waste to function — a memory that inspired him to create a unique and environmentally friendly fabric called “Seawool.” Wang remembered that residents of his seaside hometown of Yunlin County used discarded oyster shells that littered the streets during the harvest as insulation for their homes. “They burned the shells and painted the residue on the walls. The houses then became warm in the winter and cool in the summer,” the 42-year-old said at his factory in Tainan. “So I was
‘LEADERS’: The report highlighted C.C. Wei’s management at TSMC, Lisa Su’s decisionmaking at AMD and the ‘rock star’ status of Nvidia’s Huang Time magazine on Thursday announced its list of the 100 most influential people in artificial intelligence (AI), which included Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) chairman and chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) and AMD chair and CEO Lisa Su (蘇姿丰). The list is divided into four categories: Leaders, Innovators, Shapers and Thinkers. Wei and Huang were named in the Leaders category. Other notable figures in the Leaders category included Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Meta CEO and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. Su was listed in the Innovators category. Time highlighted Wei’s
RSS