While world leaders have condemned the storming of the US Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, the silence from President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) is cause for concern, former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) office said yesterday.
The US is Taiwan’s most important ally and the Tsai administration prides itself for maintaining good Taiwan-US relations, as well as being vocal in its support for democracy advocacy movements in Hong Kong, the office said in a statement.
Aside from a brief mention of “regretting the incident” by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Tsai administration has been silent on the incident, which trampled the principles of democracy, the office said.
This might cause the administration of US president-elect Joe Biden to entertain the thought that Tsai, if she does not support the violence outright, at least condones it, the office said.
Heads of state around the world condemned the act, because no government that embraces the principles of a democratic system of government and the rule of law would condone a government building being overrun by violence, it said.
Regardless of their platform, no group should exceed the boundaries of the law, it said.
The office said that the united stance of politicians across party lines in the US to condemn the intrusion into the Capitol was in stark contrast to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), whose members openly supported a takeover of the legislature in Taipei in 2014.
In the Sunflower movement, a student-led group protesting the abrupt passage of a cross-strait service trade agreement occupied the Legislative Yuan’s main chamber for 23 days.
It needs to be asked why the DPP’s definition of democracy and the rule of law seems to differ greatly from that of the rest of the world, the office said.
Taiwan’s Liu Ming-i, right, who also goes by the name Ray Liu, poses with a Chinese Taipei flag after winning the gold medal in the men’s physique 170cm competition at the International Fitness and Bodybuilding Federation Asian Championship in Ajman, United Arab Emirates, yesterday.
Costa Rica sent a group of intelligence officials to Taiwan for a short-term training program, the first time the Central American country has done so since the countries ended official diplomatic relations in 2007, a Costa Rican media outlet reported last week. Five officials from the Costa Rican Directorate of Intelligence and Security last month spent 23 days in Taipei undergoing a series of training sessions focused on national security, La Nacion reported on Friday, quoting unnamed sources. The Costa Rican government has not confirmed the report. The Chinese embassy in Costa Rica protested the news, saying in a statement issued the same
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
RSS