President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday hinted that he will forge ahead with the abolition of the National Unification Council (NUC) and unification guidelines, saying that he will continue to "do the right thing" and "walk the right way."
"No matter how bad the situation is, only faith, enthusiasm and unity can give us the power to march ahead without fear," he said. "It is like a train going through a tunnel. Some people are afraid of the darkness, but as long as the train keeps moving, they'll eventually see the light and hope at the end of the tunnel."
Chen made the remarks last night at a Lunar New Year dinner held by the Association of Tainan County Residents in Taipei City at the Ambassador Hotel. Chen, a native of Tainan, said that as China increased the number of missiles targeted at Taiwan along its southeastern coast from 706 last year to 784 this year, Taiwan's giant neighbor has significantly heightened cross-strait tension and threatened regional security.
"China has aggressively expanded its military capability and is honing its combat readiness in a three-stage preparation for war against us," he said.
The Pentagon's Quadrennial Defense Review also indicated that China, one of the regions major and emerging powers, has the greatest potential to "compete militarily with the US and field disruptive military technologies that could over time offset traditional US military advantages," he said.
As head of state, Chen said it is his responsibility and mission to safeguard the safety of the nation. He also called on the public to take heed of China's military buildup and political ambitions after it passed the "Anti-Secession" Law about a year ago.
"The US government has publicly criticized the law and asked Beijing to right its wrong," he said. "However, a year has passed and China has further split our country."
Chen also lambasted Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
"Only the Taiwanese people have the right to decide the future of Taiwan, not one single party or individual," Chen said.
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,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
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
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
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