The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) delegation that has traveled to China to push for cooperation and reconciliation with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is "seemingly deranged with regard to space and time," President Chen Shui-bian (
"It is unimaginable that this could happen at this time, when Taiwan is already implementing democratic and Constitutional rule. What [accord] could possibly be achieved through KMT-CCP co-operation?" Chen asked. His remarks yesterday were his first public comments about the KMT delegation's visit to China.
Headed by KMT Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kun (
In reference to Chiang's trip, Chen said "recently `someone' has traveled to the other side of the Strait to push for `reconciliation between the KMT and the Chinese Communist Party' ... the situation seems to be out of place and time, as if they had turned the clock back 60 to 80 years ago, when the two parties were trying to find common ground."
"It is now 2005. We have entered the 21st century, and a country can only progress by moving forward and not backpedalling. Is it right then to go back to 1945, 1935 or 1925?" Chen asked rhetorically, alluding to previous periods of KMT-CCP cooperation in the 1920s and during World War II.
"Taiwan has implemented democratic and constitutional rule. Can we now put a party above the nation?" Chen said in a speech delivered at the inauguration of an educational institute hosted by the National Youth Commission (青輔會) "Is it possible that we are supposed to return to the old days and do what the Chinese Communist Party still does: Let a party keep an iron grip on the government and the military?"
Chen said that "placing our hope in the people and upholding the principle of `Taiwan first' are the correct and best choices to make."
Chen told the audience of young people that the biggest difference between the two sides of the Strait was not about governments, but about different lifestyles and social systems, saying that it boiled down to "democracy versus communism and peace versus threats."
"Like a divided house that cannot stand, if we can't unite among ourselves, we are then a divided country," Chen said.
"If we can't unite but continue to stay divided in a dichotomy of pan-blues and pan-greens, do we need more of the Anti-Secession Law? Our own country will fall apart first, even without the Anti-Secession Law," the president said. He added that "only a united Taiwan can stabilize cross-strait relations."
Touching upon last Saturday's demonstration denouncing the enactment of the Anti-Secession Law, the president took the opportunity to explain the significance of the march, in which hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets.
The march was significant because the motivation behind the event was the people and not politicians, Chen said, adding that political figures, including himself and Premier Frank Hsieh (
"The 326 March for Democracy and Peace was a bona fide international press conference, not my own nor any person's press conference," Chen said. "A million people marched in the streets and, via their action, showed the world their determination to safeguard Taiwan's democracy and peace, as well as their opposition to Beijing's law."
"It was the best international press conference and the entire international media saw, heard and reported it," he said.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
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