Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) formally declared her candidacy for next year’s presidential race yesterday after receiving her party’s nomination, calling for solidarity and strength to change the nation.
“Today is an important day and I am honored to accept the DPP’s nomination to take part in the Republic of China’s next presidential election on behalf of the DPP,” Tsai, 58, told a press conference at DPP headquarters in Taipei.
Tsai’s nomination was approved at a meeting of the party’s Central Executive Committee to a round of applause shortly before the press conference.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
It will be Tsai’s second shot at the presidency, after losing to President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in the 2012 presidential election, in which Tsai garnered 45.63 percent of the votes, while Ma received 51.6 percent.
“The night we were beaten, there were many young people crying,” Tsai said.
“Today, I want to tell you all — and myself — I will do whatever I can to turn those tears to laughter,” Tsai added.
Tsai said the development of cross-strait relations had to be subject to the will of Taiwanese and could not be undertaken as party-to-party negotiations.
“The basic principle of our party in cross-strait relations is to maintain the ‘status quo,’” Tsai said.
“After we [the DPP] come to power, we will examine agreements [with China] case by case, according to the law, and will continue negotiations,” she added.
Tsai also attacked the KMT over the nation’s growing wealth gap and growing youth unemployment, vowing to rehabilitate the nation’s economy.
“The government has shut the door on the public and refused to listen to them,” she said.
The KMT has yet to announce its nomination, but Tsai leads all the likely candidates in opinion polls.
As the DPP announced its candidate for next year’s presidential election, China yesterday warned the party to heed the lessons of the last time it was in power and not to push for independence.
“If [the DPP] upholds the Taiwanese independence splittist position of ‘one country on either side of the Taiwan Strait,’ then it will be hard to find a way out for cross-strait relations,” China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xiaoguang (馬曉光) told a regular press briefing in Beijing. “This is not a new talking point — this is what happened between 2000 and 2008. One need not look far for a lesson.”
DEATH THREAT: A MAC official said that it has urged Beijing to avoid creating barriers that would impede exchanges across the Strait, but it continues to do so People should avoid unnecessary travel to China after Beijing issued 22 guidelines allowing its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death “Taiwan independence separatists,” the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday as it raised its travel alert for China, including Hong Kong and Macau, to “orange.” The guidelines published last week “severely threaten the personal safety of Taiwanese traveling to China, Hong Kong and Macau,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) told a news conference in Taipei. “Following a comprehensive assessment, the government considers it necessary to elevate the travel alert to orange from yellow,” Liang said. Beijing has
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday said that the Chinese Communist Party was planning and implementing “major” reforms, ahead of a political conclave that is expected to put economic recovery high on the agenda. Chinese policymakers have struggled to reignite growth since late 2022, when restrictions put in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic were lifted. The world’s second-largest economy is beset by a debt crisis in the property sector, persistently low consumption and high unemployment among young people. Policymakers “are planning and implementing major measures to further deepen reform in a comprehensive manner,” Xi said in a speech at the Great Hall
CIVIL DEFENSE: More reservists in alternative service would help establish a sound civil defense system for use in wartime and during natural disasters, Kuma Academy’s CEO said While a total of 120,000 reservists are expected to be called up for alternative reserve drills this year, compared with the 6,505 drilled last year, the number has been revised to 58,000 due to a postponed training date, Deputy Minster of the Interior Ma Shih-yuan (馬士元) said. In principle, the ministry still aims to call up 120,000 reservists for alternative reserve drills next year, he said, but the actual number would not be decided later until after this year’s evaluation. The increase follows a Legislative Yuan request that the Ministry of the Interior address low recruitment rates, which it made while reviewing
SOLUTIONS NEEDED: Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers due to population decline, the minister of economic affairs said in Washington President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration is considering a plan to import labor to deal with an impending shortage of engineers and other highly skilled workers, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said in Washington on Tuesday. Kuo was leading a delegation attending the SelectUSA Investment Summit. Taiwan must attract about 400,000 to 500,000 skilled foreign workers for high-end manufacturing jobs by 2040, he said. Ministry of Economic Affairs officials are still calculating the precise number of workers that are needed, as it works on loosening immigration restrictions and creating incentives, Kuo said. Taiwanese firms operating factories in the US and other countries would