Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) is pandering to Beijing and would like to see Taiwan capitulate in a potential war with China, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Deputy Secretary-General Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) said yesterday.
Lin made the remarks in a Yahoo TV show hosted by political commentator Wang Shi-chi (王時齊).
Lin said Ko’s views on defense show he is a “defeatist” and his advocacy for appeasement shows that he thinks Taiwan should surrender if war breaks out with China.
Photo: CNA
Wang said Ko’s views were exemplified by him last week telling the Taipei City Council that the “goal is to safeguard Taiwan, but in doing so, there is no need to go against China. We do not have to link the two together.”
“When we go against China, how can we safeguard Taiwan? That is the question mark for me,” Ko told councilors in a question-and-answer session.
“Taiwanese should do things that enable people in China to like us. That is the highest goal. If they do not like us, then we will have trouble... The two sides [of the Taiwan Strait] should hold talks, it is better for happiness as members of one big family,” Ko said.
Lin said Ko is trying to promote the idea that defending Taiwan against China is useless and Taiwanese should instead accept that they are members of the Chinese family.
Ko is also a proponent of the so-called “1992 consensus,” Lin said.
The so-called “1992 consensus,” a term former Mainland Affairs Council 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 Chinese government that both sides of the Strait acknowledge there is “one China,” with each side having its own interpretation of what “China” means.
In Ko’s version, that means calling for capitulation to China, Lin said.
“Taiwan belongs to the world, and we are among the world’s democratic nations, willing to advance collaboration with the international community,” Lin said.
DPP Lienchiang County commissioner candidate Lii Wen (李問) said that despite Lienchiang residents having a front-row view on Chinese live-fire drills last month, they were unimpressed.
“People have no fear, and the drills had little effect on their daily lives. Tourism and other sectors of the local economy are operating as normal,” he said.
They are more concerned about China’s “gray-zone” warfare, including Chinese boats dredging sand and illegally fishing near Matsu, he said.
There had been confrontations between Chinese boats and local fishers, he added.
This story has been amended since it was first published.
Greenpeace yesterday said that it is to appeal a decision last month by the Taipei High Administrative Court to dismiss its 2021 lawsuit against the Ministry of Economic Affairs over “loose” regulations governing major corporate electricity consumers. The climate-related lawsuit — the first of its kind in Taiwan — sought to require the government to enforce higher green energy thresholds on major corporations to reduce emissions in light of climate change and an uptick in extreme weather. The suit, filed by Greenpeace East Asia, the Environmental Jurists Association and four individual plaintiffs, was dismissed on May 8 following four years of litigation. The
A former officer in China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who witnessed the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre has warned that Taiwan could face a similar fate if China attempts to unify the country by force. Li Xiaoming (李曉明), who was deployed to Beijing as a junior officer during the crackdown, said Taiwanese people should study the massacre carefully, because it offers a glimpse of what Beijing is willing to do to suppress dissent. “What happened in Tiananmen Square could happen in Taiwan too,” Li told CNA in a May 22 interview, ahead of the massacre’s 36th anniversary. “If Taiwanese students or
DIPLOMACY: It is Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo’s first visit to Taiwan since he took office last year, while Eswatini’s foreign minister is also paying a visit A delegation led by Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo arrived in Taiwan yesterday afternoon and is to visit President William Lai (賴清德) today. The delegation arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport at 4:55pm, and was greeted by Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍). It is Arevalo’s first trip to Taiwan since he took office last year, and following the visit, he is to travel to Japan to celebrate the 90th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. Arevalo said at the airport that he is very glad to make the visit to Taiwan, adding that he brings an important message of responsibility
About 3,000 people gathered at events in Taipei yesterday for an annual candlelight vigil commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre, a brutal crackdown by Chinese authorities on a student-led demonstration in Beijing on June 4 36 years ago. A candlelight vigil organized by the New School for Democracy and other human rights groups began at 7pm on Democracy Boulevard outside Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall, with the theme "Resist Transnational Repression, Defy Totalitarianism." At about 8pm, organizers announced that about 3,000 people had attended the event, which featured brief speeches by human rights advocates from Taiwan and China, including Hong Kong, as well
RSS