The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday urged the public to support its referendum on "rejoining" the UN and boycott the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) referendum on joining the world body.
The two referendums will be held together with the presidential election next Saturday.
KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) lashed out at President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) for using the referendum to manipulate the presidential election and provoke the US, which has expressed its opposition to the DPP's pursuit of "name change via the referendum."
"The DPP referendum has brought danger across the Taiwan Strait and squeezed Taiwan's international space," Wu said, announcing the KMT's decision after a meeting of the Central Standing Committee at party headquarters.
The DPP referendum proposes joining the UN using the name "Taiwan," while the KMT initiative calls for rejoining the world body under the name "Republic of China" or any other "practical title" that upholds the nation's dignity.
Wu said that the KMT-initiated referendum was an expression of the public's desire to join the UN and other international organizations in a flexible and pragmatic way without damaging US-Taiwan relations.
Wu and KMT presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou's (
"Although the KMT's version was presented by KMT vice presidential candidate Vincent Siew (
KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (
While urging voters to support the KMT's referendum bid, Wu said the party would respect members who boycott both referendums.
"We understand and respect such a stance. They plan to boycott both referendums as a protest against the president's manipulation of referendums," Wu said.
In response to Chen's offer to decouple the referendums from the presidential election in return for lowering the voting threshold for referendums, Wu said the threshold was set by the legislature and the KMT would not respond to the president's unreasonable request.
Wu said the party was willing to review the Referendum Law (公投法) after the election, but not now.
The Referendum Law requires a 50 percent voter turnout -- or approximately 8 million voters -- for the results to be declared valid.
Wu also promised to continue pushing a KMT proposal called "Taiwanese People's Demand to Join the UN" in the legislature.
In response to the KMT's decision, the DPP legislative caucus yesterday urged the KMT and its supporters to respect the spirit of democracy and participate in both referendums.
"The KMT is more than welcome to encourage its supporters to support or veto either of the two referendums but, please, do not give up your rights for both," DPP caucus whip William Lai (賴清德) said at a press conference.
Lai said that the KMT's proposal had been endorsed by more than 1 million people and boycotting it would mean contradicting itself.
"You can vote no, but you should participate in the referendum. That is the message we would like to deliver to the KMT and its supporters," Lai said.
Meanwhile, DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh's (謝長廷) campaign team yesterday lambasted the KMT for its contradictory position and "two-faced tactics" on the referendum.
"On the one hand, it seems it is in favor of the referendum, but on the other, it is boycotting it. This is dishonest," Hsieh spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (
As a responsible party, the KMT owes the public a clear account on where it stood or it would be cheating its supporters, Cheng said.
Additional reporting by Ko Shu-ling and Jimmy Chuang
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
STANDING TOGETHER: Amid China’s increasingly aggressive activities, nations must join forces in detecting and dealing with incursions, a Taiwanese official said Two senior Philippine officials and one former official yesterday attended the Taiwan International Ocean Forum in Taipei, the first high-level visit since the Philippines in April lifted a ban on such travel to Taiwan. The Ocean Affairs Council hosted the two-day event at the National Taiwan University Hospital International Convention Center. Philippine Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Roy Vincent Trinidad, Coast Guard spokesman Grand Commodore Jay Tarriela and former Philippine Presidential Communications Office assistant secretary Michel del Rosario participated in the forum. More than 100 officials, experts and entrepreneurs from 15 nations participated in the forum, which included discussions on countering China’s hybrid warfare
MORE DEMOCRACY: The only solution to Taiwan’s current democratic issues involves more democracy, including Constitutional Court rulings and citizens exercising their civil rights , Lai said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) is not the “motherland” of the Republic of China (ROC) and has never owned Taiwan, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday. The speech was the third in a series of 10 that Lai is scheduled to deliver across Taiwan. Taiwan is facing external threats from China, Lai said at a Lions Clubs International banquet in Hsinchu. For example, on June 21 the army detected 12 Chinese aircraft, eight of which entered Taiwanese waters, as well as six Chinese warships that remained in the waters around Taiwan, he said. Beyond military and political intimidation, Taiwan
RSS