At the heart of the controversy over President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) proposal to scrap the National Unification Council and unification guidelines are the pledges made by Chen in his first inaugural address. Many feel that in making the pledges, Chen created more problems for himself than he resolved.
Vice President Annette Lu (
She also claimed that the precondition did not exist when the pledges were made.
PHOTO: CHANG CHIA-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
Chen promised that as long as Beijing had no intention of using military force against Taiwan, he would not declare independence, change the national title, enshrine the "state-to-state" model of cross-strait relations in the Constitution or hold a referendum on independence or unification.
Chen's final pledge was that abolishing the NUC and unification guidelines "would not be an issue."
Peng Ming-min (
"He has lost a lot of supporters because of that," Peng said.
Peng, however, said that he believes there are complex reasons for why Chen did so. He also believes that Chen was well aware that he would run the risk of losing support by making the pledge.
Chen was later criticized for agreeing to discuss the issue of "one China." Beijing, however, insisted on setting that as the precondition for the resumption of cross-strait talks.
As the US government has expressed the hope that Chen will reiterate the pledges, Peng said that he wonders why the US did not strongly condemn China's Anti-Secession Law, the enactment of which he sees as more serious than doing away with the unification council and guidelines.
Peng said that he cannot be certain whether Chen will reiterate the pledge, but that the US government must realize that the premise of the pledges no longer exists, as the status quo in the Taiwan Strait is dynamic, rather than static.
"US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld once said that China is the only country in the world that is not threatened by any other country," Peng said. "It makes me wonder why China keeps making double-digit increases in its military budget each year. The answer is simple and clear: they want to make themselves so strong that the US won't be able to interfere in whatever happens in the Taiwan Strait. When China is ready, the first thing they will do is change the status quo."
Police have issued warnings against traveling to Cambodia or Thailand when others have paid for the travel fare in light of increasing cases of teenagers, middle-aged and elderly people being tricked into traveling to these countries and then being held for ransom. Recounting their ordeal, one victim on Monday said she was asked by a friend to visit Thailand and help set up a bank account there, for which they would be paid NT$70,000 to NT$100,000 (US$2,136 to US$3,051). The victim said she had not found it strange that her friend was not coming along on the trip, adding that when she
TRAGEDY: An expert said that the incident was uncommon as the chance of a ground crew member being sucked into an IDF engine was ‘minuscule’ A master sergeant yesterday morning died after she was sucked into an engine during a routine inspection of a fighter jet at an air base in Taichung, the Air Force Command Headquarters said. The officer, surnamed Hu (胡), was conducting final landing checks at Ching Chuan Kang (清泉崗) Air Base when she was pulled into the jet’s engine for unknown reasons, the air force said in a news release. She was transported to a hospital for emergency treatment, but could not be revived, it said. The air force expressed its deepest sympathies over the incident, and vowed to work with authorities as they
A tourist who was struck and injured by a train in a scenic area of New Taipei City’s Pingsi District (平溪) on Monday might be fined for trespassing on the tracks, the Railway Police Bureau said yesterday. The New Taipei City Fire Department said it received a call at 4:37pm on Monday about an incident in Shifen (十分), a tourist destination on the Pingsi Railway Line. After arriving on the scene, paramedics treated a woman in her 30s for a 3cm to 5cm laceration on her head, the department said. She was taken to a hospital in Keelung, it said. Surveillance footage from a
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
RSS