President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) campaign office yesterday crossed swords with Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson and presidential nominee Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) over the latter’s latest campaign slogan: “I am a Taiwanese (我是台灣人),” which follows two earlier slogans — “Taiwan NEXT” and “Taiwan, what do you want?”
Tsai said in a speech in Nantou County yesterday that if elected, she will “ensure people feel proud about being Taiwanese.”
Tsai said that the willingness to identify oneself as Taiwanese in public, with pride, is a symbol of Taiwan’s democratic values and social progress.
“When we are overseas, we should be able to say: ‘I am Taiwanese’ out loud,” Tsai said, adding that if the DPP regains power next year, she will devote more resources to enhancing Taiwan’s recognition in the international community.
At a campaign event in New Taipei City (新北市) on Friday, Tsai accused the Ma administration of undermining the nation’s sovereignty and identity, and said that the government “made it difficult for people in Taiwan to be Taiwanese.”
“It also seems that President Ma finds it difficult to say the word ‘Taiwanese’ out loud,” she said.
In response, Ma’s campaign office yesterday accused Tsai of seeking to make ethnicity a campaign issue and urged the DPP to abandon what it called “an old election tactic.”
Ma’s campaign office spokesman Yin Wei (殷瑋) accused Tsai of resorting to “Taiwanese rhetoric,” a tactic that he said had been a favorite of the DPP since the campaigns of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and one that would be rejected by the public.
“People who grow up and live in Taiwan, regardless of their political affiliations, are all Taiwanese, and being Taiwanese is a natural thing. Which part of being Taiwanese is so difficult?” he said.
Taiwanese identity is not the property of the DPP, Yin said. It is a social reality shared by people in Taiwan, he added
On Tsai’s promise to gain more respect for Taiwan as a member of the international community and raise Taiwanese people’s sense of dignity, Yin defended Ma’s efforts to safeguard the nation’s dignity and the sovereignty of the Republic of China on the international stage by citing the nation’s participation in the WHO and the increasing number of countries granting Taiwanese visa-waiver status.
Compared with the Ma administration’s achievements in raising the nation’s international profile, he said Tsai, a former vice premier, participated in six WHO-related activities under the name “Taiwan, China,” Yin said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY CNA
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
INDUSTRIAL CLUSTER: In Germany, the sector would be developed around Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s plant, and extend to Poland and the Czech Republic The Executive Yuan’s economic diplomacy task force has approved programs aimed at bolstering the nation’s chip diplomacy with Japan and European nations. The task force in its first meeting had its operational mechanism and organizational structure confirmed, with Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) the convener, and Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君) and Minister Without Portfolio Ma Yung-cheng (馬永成) the deputy conveners. Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) would be the convener of the task force’s strategy group in charge of policy planning for economic diplomacy. The meeting was attended by the heads of the National Development Council, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the
RSS