The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) last night held the first large-scale campaign rally in an envisaged series of national referendum promotion campaigns in Taoyuan County to boost the momentum and public support for an election-day referendum proposed by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
Speaking at the rally, Chen urged the people of Taiwan to jointly defend the nation's democracy, peace, status quo and the wish not to be belittled as a Chinese local government.
Chen said that as the national leader, he can't ignore the threat of Chinese missiles aimed at Taiwan and he must raise public awareness of the underlying danger of missiles against Taiwan's security.
Chen said the facts are that the Chinese missiles are aimed at Taiwan, China wants to make Taiwan a second Hong Kong and China would use force against Taiwan to coerce Taiwan into accepting this situation.
"These are things that are happening every day, but some people [in Taiwan] are rather uninformed about these dangers and treat them as natural matters. However, as a national leader, I can't pretend not to see these dangers and we have to voice our discontent towards these unreasonable military threats," Chen said.
Chen said Taiwan is not a normal and complete country because the people of Taiwan have long refrained to acknowledge that Taiwan is a country, even though they can choose their own lawmakers and national leader and even though Taiwan and China have different areas of jurisdiction.
"It is a known fact that Taiwan and China are separate countries on each side of the Taiwan Strait, but some people dare not acknowledge it and think it might bring disaster to Taiwan. That's the reason the international community won't recognize us," Chen said.
Chen said Taiwan has come a long way in the process of democratization through the abolishment of the ban on political parties, the press and the accomplishment of the legislative elections and direct presidential election in the past.
"At this juncture, to further Taiwan's democracy, the holding of such a historic referendum will be necessary to advance democracy and ensure Taiwan's security," Chen said.
Meanwhile, Chen said his administration has braved many difficulties, including the economic recession, black-gold politics rampant in the former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) regime and many financial irregularities to enforce many reforms since he took office in 2000.
He urged the people not to allow a corrupt political system led by the pan-blue alliance to stage a comeback.
Vice President Annette Lu (
She urged the people to safeguard the security and prosperity of Taiwan through an election-day referendum to defy China's missiles.
Lu said Taiwan does not have a problem of "exercising splittism" as alleged by China, since Taiwan is already an independent and sovereign country and has been exercising separate jurisdiction from China for more than five decades.
She said the Taiwanese people should waste no time debating on the independence or unification issues; they should rather work together to boost Taiwan's international standing.
The campaign rally in Taoyuan saw many local Hakka clan leaders throwing their support behind Chen, including Wu Yun-tung (吳運東), cousin of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄) and president of the Taiwan Medical Association.
DPP Legislator Chiu Chui-chen (
The first massive rally held after the Lunar New Year, the event last night drew more than 30,000 people to gather in Chung-li township.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
RSS