Anyone has the right to murder the president if the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) loses its High Court Lawsuit today, KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰) told a meeting to the KMT Central Standing Committee yesterday.
The shocking statement came on the heels of a report to the committee delivered by a by a pan-blue lawyer.
The High Court judges are expected to deliver their verdict on whether the result of the March 20 presidential election should be annulled today.
In his report the lawyer claimed that, whatever the finding of judges, fraud certainly occurred.
After listening to the report, Lien said: "It is no big deal that [President] Chen [Shui-bian] (
Lien then said: "No one is so great that people cannot touch him. As long as we see anyone who makes frauds or unlawful actions, every one could put this guy to death."
Lien said that he hoped that the judges "do not forget their responsibility and make a right decision on it [the lawsuit]."
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday demanded Lien apologize for his remark, calling it his gravest mis-statement since March 20.
DPP Secretary-General Chang Chun-hsiung (
"I'm so sorry to hear Lien make so irrational a statement. Fortunately Lien is simply the KMT Chairman and was not elected as Taiwan's president," Chang said. "On the eve of the verdict, Lien's words only prove that he will never admit the result of the presidential election and simply is unable to get over his defeat."
Chang also pointed out that the DPP has tolerated a succession of similar accusations that the pan-blue camp has made since the election.
Even People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
"Yet today Lien's speech just goes too far beyond the limit society could tolerate," Chang said. "They aim to trample upon Taiwan's legal system and incite confrontation in the country so that they can overthrow a head of state elected by a democratic procedure."
Meanwhile, Chang urged both pan-green and pan-blue supporters not to gather in front of the High Court building and to be sure to accept the verdict to be announced this afternoon.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
China’s newest Type-076 amphibious assault ship has two strengths and weaknesses, wrote a Taiwanese defense expert, adding that further observations of its capabilities are warranted. Jiang Hsin-biao (江炘杓), an assistant researcher at the National Defense and Security Research, made the comments in a report recently published by the institute about the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) military and political development. China christened its new assault ship Sichuan in a ceremony on Dec. 27 last year at Shanghai’s Hudong Shipyard, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. “The vessel, described as the world’s largest amphibious assault ship by the [US think tank] Center for Strategic and International