Taiwan will send delegations to the US, Europe and Japan to try to assure them a controversial referendum would not change the nation's political status quo with China, a group member said yesterday.
Parris Chang (
"As a major power, China should be more responsible and not behave like a bully," Chang, whose delegation will visit Britain, France, Germany and EU officials, said.
"We do not seek to change the status quo. We certainly don't use this referendum for independence as such. We do hope this referendum could accomplish peace," Chang said.
The delegations of senior officials and academics are scheduled to leave Taiwan on Friday and plan to meet with officials, lawmakers, think tanks and media in those countries.
China condemned Chen on Wednesday for saying he was waging a "holy war" against it, calling him immoral and accusing him of fanning anti-Beijing sentiment to win votes.
Chen shows no signs of backing down on holding the "peace referendum" alongside presidential elections on March 20, despite a blunt warning from US President George W. Bush against either side upsetting the status quo.
But Chen's chief of staff, Chiou I-jen (邱義仁), became the first in the president's camp to admit the referendum plan could become an election liability for Chen if the government failed to ease international concerns, local newspapers reported yesterday.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Former Taiwan People’s Party chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) may apply to visit home following the death of his father this morning, the Taipei Detention Center said. Ko’s father, Ko Cheng-fa (柯承發), passed away at 8:40am today at the Hsinchu branch of National Taiwan University Hospital. He was 94 years old. The center said Ko Wen-je was welcome to apply, but declined to say whether it had already received an application. The center also provides psychological counseling to people in detention as needed, it added, also declining to comment on Ko Wen-je’s mental state. Ko Wen-je is being held in detention as he awaits trial
RSS