The top priority for Taiwan’s leader is avoiding war with China at a time of escalating tensions across the Taiwan Strait, said New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate.
In a speech on Thursday delivered at the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan (AmCham), Hou said Taiwan must avoid war with China, and that only when it is safe and stable, can in attract investors around the world to pour resources into the country.
Hou said that if elected, he would maintain his long-held principles of safeguarding the country and bringing peace to the Taiwan Strait, and security and prosperity to Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan has to take proactive and pragmatic moves to strengthen its self-defense capabilities to avoid the threat of war, he said.
At the same time, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should have dialogue and conduct exchanges to reduce conflicts with equality, dignity and friendship, he said.
Under his proposed “3Ds strategy” of deterrence, dialogue and de-escalation, Taiwan would be able to facilitate peace and reduce risks, while continuing to cement ties with Washington and to maintain peace in the Indo-Pacific region, Hou said.
Industries in Taiwan are facing a tremendous challenge on energy and electricity, and he advocated an orderly transition to renewable energy to secure energy supplies, he said.
Hou said that he would carefully inspect and repair Taiwan’s three completed nuclear power plants, two of which have already been shut down for decommissioning, and establish a safety review committee to re-examine the decision to discontinue construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.
Taiwan would also continue to pursue green energy development, while raising energy use efficiency by investing in energy conservation, storage, and smart electricity grid networks.
He would also push the development of hydrogen power and small power plants in a bid to allow Taiwan to achieve net zero emissions.
In other news, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Thursday said if elected, he would extend compulsory education to include kindergarten, and high school or vocational education, in addition to the existing six years of elementary school and three years of junior-high school education.
To promote bilingual education, Ko proposed training bilingual teachers through various channels, including government-funded programs.
Free bilingual textbooks would also be available for grades 1 to 9, which would help bridge the resource gap between urban and rural areas, he added.
Ko also said that there is need for legislation to standardize the pricing of school lunches and address disparities in subsidy funding across counties and cities in Taiwan.
On Sept. 12, Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential candidate, said that if elected, he would implement tuition exemptions for senior-high schools and vocational schools.
In addition to providing a fixed annual subsidy of NT$35,000 for tuition and miscellaneous fees to private college students, economically disadvantaged students attending public colleges and universities can receive exemptions of up to NT$20,000 or NT$55,000 if they are enrolled in private colleges, Lai said.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
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