President Chen Shui-bian (
"Every country in the world is equal and all human beings are equal," Chen said. "It is not right that while almost all people in the world can enjoy the freedom from fear, only the people of Taiwan are denied this basic right.
"According to the founding spirit of the US, China's military threats and deployment of missiles would not be regarded as a matter of course," Chen said. "According to the US' founding spirit, the resolution and efforts of 23 million people in Taiwan to seek peace and democracy should not be regarded as acts of provocation."
Chen said he had realized the meaning of the US' founding spirit during his visit to New York this October. He said this spirit is the pursuit of democracy, the love of freedom, the respect of peace and the defense of human rights.
"The significance of the `defensive referendum' is to protect Taiwan's status quo and to continue to develop its achievement of carrying out these four universal values," he said.
rights roundtable
Chen made the appeal while meeting with Scott Horton, president of the International League for Human Rights, who arrived in Taipei earlier this week to attend a human rights roundtable organized by Academia Historica and the preparatory office of the National Human Rights Museum.
"The reason the league gave the 2003 Human Rights Award to the 23 million people of Taiwan is because it believes all the people of Taiwan should enjoy basic human rights," Chen said.
"People of Taiwan have the right to say no to China's missiles and we can clearly express our wishes to avoid war," Chen said.
"We propose such a humble request to exercise our fundamental right," he said. "If there still is someone trying to restrict us, we will feel regret. It is discrimination against the 23 million people of Taiwan."
US President George W. Bush had expressed concern about the referendum movement after a closed-door meeting with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (
"We oppose any unilateral decision by either China or Taiwan to change the status quo," Bush said. "The comments and actions made by the leader of Taiwan indicate that he may be willing to make decisions unilaterally, to change the status quo, which we oppose."
unperturbed
Chen and Premier Yu Shyi-kun on Wednesday both pledged the government's resolve to hold a national referendum on the date of the presidential election, March 20, to ask China to renounce military action against Taiwan and to withdraw its ballistic missiles targeting Taiwan.
Chen reiterated yesterday his plan for the referendum and appealed to the US to support such a democratic and peaceful measure.
Horton praised Chen's firm stand to go ahead with the referendum. He said the referendum was a basic human right of people in a democratic society, which should be respected, protected and valued.
"I think that President Bush said the wrong thing," Horton said.
"During his recent visit to London, Bush pointed out explicitly that democracy, human rights and self-determination are the three pillars of peace," he said.
China's ignorance
Horton added that Wen's accusation that Taiwan was using the referendum as an excuse to split the country stemmed from Wen's ignorance of democracy.
Horton said he supports Chen's referendum.
"Only by going ahead with the referendum can the Taiwanese people's basic human rights be protected." he said.
Horton also said China is opposing Taiwan's right to hold referendums because Beijing feels threatened by democracy.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
A new board game set against the backdrop of armed conflict around Taiwan is to be released next month, amid renewed threats from Beijing, inviting players to participate in an imaginary Chinese invasion 20 years from now. China has ramped up military activity close to Taiwan in the past few years, including massing naval forces around the nation. The game, titled 2045, tasks players with navigating the troubles of war using colorful action cards and role-playing as characters involved in operations 10 days before a fictional Chinese invasion of Taiwan. That includes members of the armed forces, Chinese sleeper agents and pro-China politicians