Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and former chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said that President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) statement that cross-strait relations are “not international relations” during his Double Ten National Day speech on Thursday was unacceptable.
“If cross-strait relations are not international relations, I would like to know what they are,” Su said.
Taiwanese elect their own leader and the People’s Republic of China has been established for more than six decades, Su said, adding that neither the public nor the DPP can accept Ma’s comments.
“Why did Ma make this comment after the election rather than during his election campaign?” Su said.
Aside from describing cross-strait ties as “not international relations,” Ma said that “people on both sides of the Taiwan Strait are all Chinese by ethnicity (zhonghua minzu, 中華民族).
Tsai said that Ma had placed his own political interests above that of the public and exceeded his mandate by making such comments.
Ma should not risk sacrificing the nation’s interests to shift the focus away from his poor domestic governance, Tsai said on the sidelines of an event held by her Thinking Taiwan Foundation.
“The last thing we want to see is an embattled president making concessions to China or other countries to consolidate his own political status,” Tsai said. “The most important task for a national leader is to safeguard the nation’s sovereignty. With regards to the cross-strait relationship, it should be decided by Taiwan’s 23 million people, not by the president.”
Making such a bold pronouncement without going through the democratic process and respecting public consensus would be a breach of duty and a violation of his mandate, she said.
At a separate setting, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chih (王郁琦) defended Ma’s comments, saying what the president said was consistent with the government’s cross-strait policies.
“President Ma has said in the past that cross-strait relations are not state-to-state relations, and his remarks on National Day carried the same meaning,” Wang said.
Last year, Ma said that cross-strait relations are not state-to-state relations, but rather a “special relationship because the two sides do not recognize each other’s sovereignty, but would not deny each other’s existence.”
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS