The governing body of the World Taiwanese Congress (WTC) demanded at a meeting on Sunday that president-elect Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) new government insist on the “one country on each side” of the Taiwan Strait principle when dealing with China and not abandon the move toward the “normalization” of Taiwan as a state.
The Coordinating Committee of the pro-independence organization, made up of dozens of mostly Taiwanese-American associations, expressed their “great concern” over the future of Taiwan in the wake of the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) sweep of the presidential and legislative elections.
“Due to the apprehension that Taiwan’s incoming government has already shown a tendency to forfeit the Taiwanization movement and resurrect the ghost of authoritarianism, WTC demands strongly that Taiwan’s officials must be loyal to Taiwan, insist on the ‘one country on each side’ status quo and continue to deepen Taiwan’s democracy,” it said.
The WTC was founded in 2000 after the election of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to help promote the sovereignty of Taiwan. It was composed of some 60 organizations and had its first Annual Convention in Taipei in March 2001, which included a speech by Chen.
In a statement after its meeting in Washington on Saturday and Sunday — its first since the Democratic Progressive Party’s crushing defeats at the polls — the committee said it defined the “status quo” as meaning that Taiwan is a “sovereign and independent country,” that China and Taiwan “do not belong to each other, that Taiwan is free and democratic and that the Taiwan Strait is peaceful and stable.
It made three proposals: a change in the names of Taiwan’s diplomatic offices abroad and of government-run enterprises, the “normalization” of Taiwan’s international relations and the “internationalization of the relationship between Taiwan and China.”
It pointed to post-presidential election polls that show “the great majority of Taiwanese people believe that Taiwan is a sovereign and independent nation, and that Taiwan and China are two separate countries.”
“Therefore, the outcome of the election did not indicate that the people of Taiwan have abandoned Taiwan’s sovereignty, nor agreed with the one-China framework for the status of Taiwan,” the organization said.
It also criticized the Taiwanese media for underplaying Chen’s accomplishments, inflating Ma’s image and having “downplayed and belittled Taiwan.” It said the majority of press and TV news outlets in Taiwan are controlled by or beholden to the KMT.
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
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
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
RSS