The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday accused former Tuntex chairman Chen Yu-hao (
DPP campaign spokesperson Wu Nai-jen (
"This is hard evidence that Chen is indeed a tool of China to sway the election," Wu said.
Wu said that China has long tried to help nurture a pro-Beijing political power in Taiwan and to achieve that, it has used all possible means to influence the results of Taiwan's presidential elections.
Wu said China failed in 1996 and 2000 to defeat the presidential candidates it disliked through military exercises and intimidating rhetoric. In this year's election, he said, China has used various methods to try to prevent President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) re-election.
First, Wu said, China has allowed the pan-blue Taiwanese businesspeople in that country to publicly campaign for the pan-blue presidential ticket. It has also helped with the mobilization of Taiwanese businesspeople to return home to vote for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
Second, he said, China has labeled Chen a "separatist" for trying to undermine its "one China" principle by holding a referendum.
Third, he said, it has used such threatening rhetoric as "the referendum will lead to a war across the Taiwan Strait" and "China's ballistic missiles are no threat to Taiwan."
Fourth, Wu said, China has tried to use the reports of the arrests of alleged Taiwanese spies and accusations made by Chen Yu-hao to attack the president.
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 —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
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