The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday accused the “increasingly authoritarian” Chinese Communist Party (CCP) of threatening global democracy, after Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in his centenary address touted the party’s accomplishments and commitment to restoring “territorial integrity.”
Donning a Mao suit before a crowd of 70,000 at Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, Xi praised the CCP for lifting millions out of poverty in the 100 years since its founding. He also upheld the “one China” principle and the so-called “1992 consensus” as a means toward peaceful unification with Taiwan.
“Solving the Taiwan question and realizing the complete reunification of the motherland are the sworn historical duties of the CCP and the common aspiration of all Chinese people,” he said, urging people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait to “smash any ‘Taiwanese independence’ plots.”
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The “1992 consensus” — a term that former MAC chairman Su Chi (蘇起) in 2006 admitted making up in 2000 — refers to a tacit understanding between the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the CCP that both sides of the Taiwan Strait acknowledge that there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
While conceding that the CCP has achieved “certain economic development” by adopting a Western free-market system, the council condemned the party for “strangling democracy and violating human rights.”
Under the pretext of national rejuvenation, the CCP is becoming “increasingly authoritarian,” while turning its back on private enterprise, it said.
Externally, it has revealed its hegemonic aspirations, while attempting to disrupt the international order, it added.
“The CCP’s historical policy blunders and persistent harmful actions pose a grave threat to regional security and global liberal democracy,” the council said.
The CCP must reflect on its mistakes and promote democratic reforms as soon as possible to return political power to the people, it said.
It must also stop bullying the weak and become a responsible party to regional peace, it added.
Responding to Xi’s calls for unification, the council urged Beijing to “face up to the reality” that 23 million Taiwanese have long rejected its unilateral “one China” principle and “1992 consensus.”
Only by abandoning intimidation and political frameworks can the two sides maintain healthy and sustainable interaction, it added.
The Taiwan Public Opinion Foundation yesterday released the results of its first-ever “feeling thermometer” poll, designed to gauge public sentiment toward the CCP.
Foundation chairman Michael You (游盈隆) said it is the first time the political science tool has been applied to the issue.
The poll asked respondents to rank their sentiment toward the CCP from 0 to 100, in which 0 represents the strongest dislike and 50 represents either indifference or no feelings.
Forty-seven percent responded with a ranking of less than 50, while 10.1 percent answered higher than 50, 31.9 percent answered 50 and 11.1 percent declined to respond or said they did not know.
The poll shows that the overwhelming majority of Taiwanese have either negative or no feelings toward the CCP, You said.
This remained true regardless of political orientation, age, gender, education, income level and other demographics, including KMT supporters and those whose families came to Taiwan after 1949, he added.
The telephone survey, conducted from June 15 to 19, collected 1,072 valid responses from respondents aged 20 or older. It has a confidence level of 95 percent and margin of error of 2.99 percentage points.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching