Maintaining the “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait is the only option for Taiwan amid an impasse between the US and China, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) told a US forum on Monday.
The former Taipei mayor, who is expected to run as the TPP’s candidate in next year’s presidential election, made the remarks at an event hosted by George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.
With Washington refusing to allow unification with China and Beijing opposing Taiwanese independence, no alternatives exist for Taiwan, said Ko, who is on a three-week visit to the US.
Photo: CNA
As many as 90 percent of Taiwanese favor maintaining the “status quo” of “no unification, no independence and no use of force,” he said.
If elected president, Ko would use “five mutuals” in relations with China to avoid conflict and miscalculation: mutual knowledge, mutual understanding, mutual respect, mutual cooperation and mutual accommodation, he said.
While advocating for more communication between Taipei and Beijing, he said he did not have plans to visit China.
Regarding his national defense policy, Ko said that “only by preparing for war and being able to fight will [we] not fear war.”
However, it was his party’s position that Taiwan should avoid provoking a confrontation with China, he added.
Meanwhile, Beijing’s rumored plan to conduct a “major military activity” in the Yellow Sea this week would only worsen cross-strait relations, he said.
While there was a fixed distance between the two sides of the Strait, “the distance between people’s hearts on both sides is variable, and China should understand this,” he said.
Since leaving for the US on April 8, Ko made stops in New York and Boston before arriving in Washington on Sunday, where he is to remain until Thursday.
While in the US capital, he is scheduled to meet with several US representatives, and pay “important visits” to US officials today, a source familiar with the matter said.
Netflix on Wednesday said it is to charge NT$100 more per month for each user that is not part of the same household. Under the plan, the streaming service is to limit viewership to people who live in the same household. If a member wishes to add people outside of their address, they must pay NT$100 more per person every month. No additional viewers can be added to the NT$270 per month “basic” account. “Standard” accounts (NT$330) can add one user, while “premium” (NT$390) accounts can add two users. The company has said that people in the same household would still be able
A Keelung high school on Saturday night apologized for using a picture containing a Chinese flag on the cover of the senior yearbook, adding that it has recalled the books and pledged to provide students new ones before graduation on Thursday. Of 309 Affiliated Keelung Maritime Senior High School of National Taiwan Ocean University graduates, 248 had purchased the yearbook. Some students said that the printer committed an outrageous error in including the picture, while others said that nobody would notice such a small flag on the cover. Other students said that they cared more about the photographs of classmates and what was
GOING INTERNATIONAL: Rakuten Girls squad leader Ula Shen said she was surprised that baseball fans outside of Taiwan not only knew of them, but also knew their names Major League Baseball’s (MLB) Oakland Athletics on Saturday hosted its first Taiwanese Heritage Day event at the Oakland Coliseum with a performance by Taiwanese cheerleading squad the Rakuten Girls and a video message from Vice President William Lai (賴清德). The Rakuten Girls, who are the cheerleaders for the CPBL’s Rakuten Monkeys, performed in front of a crowd of more than 2,000 people, followed by a prerecorded address by Lai about Taiwan’s baseball culture and democratic spirit. Taiwanese pitcher Sha Tzu-chen (沙子宸), who was signed by the Athletics earlier this year, was also present. Mizuki Lin (林襄), considered a “baseball cheerleading goddess” by Taiwanese
WAY OF THE RUKAI: ‘Values deemed worthy often exist amid discomfort, so when people go against the flow, nature becomes entwined with our lives,’ a student said “Run, don’t walk” after your dreams, Nvidia cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) told National Taiwan University (NTU) graduates yesterday, as several major universities held in-person graduation ceremonies for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic. “What will you create? Whatever it is, run after it. Run, don’t walk. Remember, either you’re running for food, or you are running from becoming food. Oftentimes, you can’t tell which. Either way, run,” he said. Huang was one of several tech executives addressing graduating students at Taiwanese universities. National Chengchi University held two ceremonies, with alumnus Patrick Pan (潘先國), who is head of Taiwan