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.”
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
LEAP FORWARD: The new tanks are ‘decades more advanced than’ the army’s current fleet and would enable it to compete with China’s tanks, a source said A shipment of 38 US-made M1A2T Abrams tanks — part of a military procurement package from the US — arrived at the Port of Taipei early yesterday. The vehicles are the first batch of 108 tanks and other items that then-US president Donald Trump announced for Taiwan in 2019. The Ministry of National Defense at the time allocated NT$40.5 billion (US$1.25 billion) for the purchase. To accommodate the arrival of the tanks, the port suspended the use of all terminals and storage area machinery from 6pm last night until 7am this morning. The tanks are expected to be deployed at the army’s training
RSS