The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday criticized the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for downplaying Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) historic speech at the European Parliament.
“The DPP has opened up to welcome the world, while the KMT is moving to embrace China,” DPP spokeswoman Han Ying (韓瑩) told a press conference.
Hsiao during the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) summit in Brussels delivered a speech titled “Taiwan: A Trusted Partner in a Volatile World” to the European Parliament, while KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) paid respect to Chinese Communist Party (CCP) spy Wu Shi (吳石) during a memorial service, Han said.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
Wu was a lieutenant general who was the Ministry of National Defense’s deputy chief of the general staff. He was executed after being convicted as a CCP spy during the White Terror era.
“Cheng’s action is a betrayal of the KMT’s position on the Republic of China and sent a wrong message to the international community that Taiwan’s largest opposition party is choosing to stand with Beijing,” she added.
Han castigated the KMT and Cheng for unable to differentiate between the enemy and Taiwan, adding that the KMT has acted against the nation’s interests by refusing to join the IPAC and working with Beijing to undermine the efforts of the administration.
“China has continued to deny Taiwan its right to have a presence on the world stage, interfering with Taiwanese officials’ and civil society groups’ efforts to have a voice at international meetings,” Han said. “DPP officials have worked hard on diplomatic initiatives and forging links with the outside world, but we have politicial forces within Taiwan that are impeding in these efforts.”
The KMT yesterday said that Cheng said Wu was not a political dissident and that the DPP was manipulating history, and using the pain and suffering of victims’ families to score political points.
Taiwan has a serious Chinese spy infiltration problem, and that needs more attention than what happened more than 70 years ago, it added.
“Multiple spies have been caught, and they were affiliated with the DPP,” it said. “Several spies who worked in the President’s Office, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other ministries have been charged with passing confidential materials to China.”
“The current spy situation is much more serious than 70 years ago, so the government should pay attention to the problem right now,” it added.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
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