Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, yesterday said he does not care to respond to Chinese officials’ remarks on Taiwan’s election, as they have no experience of operating in a democracy.
Their “nonsensical comments” about Taiwan’s presidential election is proof that China is interfering in the vote, he added.
Lai, who yesterday announced that Representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) would be his running mate for the Jan. 13 election, was responding to media queries about remarks made by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮).
Photo: CNA
Zhu said that Lai and Hsiao are a “dual-separatist combination.”
Taiwanese should “be keenly aware” of what the ticket “means for the situation across the Taiwan Strait, the lives and fortunes of Taiwanese, and the future and destiny of Taiwan,” she said.
Separately, Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper yesterday quoted Shanghai TAO Deputy Director Yang Li-hua (陽禮華) as saying that Lai winning the election might help to accelerate the process of Taiwan’s unification with China.
Advocating Taiwanese independence would provide China with an opportunity to pursue unification, Yang was quoted as saying.
China “has no fear” and is able to deal with whoever wins the presidential election in January, he said.
However, if Lai is elected president, Beijing might be able to pursue unification much faster, he said.
On the other hand, if the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) candidate won, the process might be slower, giving China “a few more years of development” to become even stronger, he said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
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
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
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
RSS