Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday officially unveiled her party’s 10-year policy guidelines, saying they represented “a commitment to Taiwan’s next generation” and illustrated the contrast between the DPP’s values and those of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
In one of her most important speeches, the DPP presidential candidate said the guidelines, which took two-and-a-half years to formulate and contain 18 chapters on a variety of issues, are a reflection of the party’s experiences and mistakes while in power.
“The guidelines are our commitment to the next generation and they are formulated with the aim of strengthening Taiwan and making it a coherent country,” Tsai said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The guidelines are built around two core concepts: Taiwan has to put its best face forward internationally and fairness and justice have to be served, Tsai told a press conference with dozens of academics and former officials, who took part in more than 100 meetings about the guidelines with Tsai since June 2009, seated beside the podium.
Between 2002 — the year Taiwan joined the WTO — and this year, the nation has experienced almost a decade of major challenges amid rapid globalization, she said.
However, despite the work the DPP did between 2000 and 2008, issues such as income disparity, regional development, as well as economic and wage stagnation remained unresolved and have even grown worse during President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) three years in office, she said.
“With its impromptu and rash policymaking, the Ma administration has been out of synch with society and has become a roadblock to Taiwan’s progress,” she said.
Tsai laid out six pillars for her overall national policy: an economy oriented toward employment, a society with fair distribution of resources, a secure and sustainable environment, a diverse and innovative education system and culture, a democracy deepened by public participation and, finally, a stable, multilateral peace strategy.
The 54-year-old expressed the view that the government should play an active role in national development.
For example, she called for publicly funded, large-scale urban regeneration projects, an increase in the market share of public universities and a state-funded care system for children and the elderly.
The policy guidelines — effectively her presidential policy platform — highlight the essential differences between the DPP and the KMT, she said.
While the KMT insists on a GDP-oriented, pro-corporation economy based on industrial development and an education system based on nationalism, the DPP intends to emphasize job creation and building the domestic economy, improving quality of life, industrial upgrades, good governance, making peace with nature and encouraging diversity, she said.
The differences in policies illustrate the drastically different values of the two parties, she said.
As for the DPP’s China policy, perhaps the most anticipated topic of the guidelines, Tsai said a multilayered and multifaceted exchange across the Taiwan Strait would be welcomed, adding that cross-strait trade should be one part of the nation’s global economic engagement as Taipei seeks to sign free-trade agreements with the US, Japan, the EU and ASEAN members, as well as ensure the benefits of cross-strait trade are shared equally with the public.
More details on her China policy will be discussed today, when Tsai hosts the last presentation of the guidelines before they are sent to the DPP Central Executive Committee for approval tomorrow.
“I was always told that no one paid attention to policies in Taiwanese elections. However, experiences from the past years tell me otherwise,” she said.
She said she hoped everyone would take the policies seriously, rather than engaging in another round of rhetorical battle.
“Taiwan has been idle for three years. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work,” she said.
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
RSS