Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) new book, The Cross of Taiwan, hit the shelves yesterday.
In the book he questions former premier Frank Hsieh’s (謝長廷) presidential campaign strategy and insinuates that Hsieh should be held solely responsible for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) defeat in last year’s presidential election.
The 247-page book is split into two parts: “Long Live Taiwan” and “Prison Conversation.”
PHOTO: AFP
“Long Live Taiwan” contains five chapters representing the five stages of his life. They are Rebirth after Death, Striving Upstream, Visions, Persistence on Principles and Taiwan Independence.
“Prison Conversation” is the diary he kept during his pre-trial detention from November until last month and his current imprisonment.
In the chapter Striving Upstream, Chen writes that it was unfair for him to shoulder all the responsibility for the party’s defeat in last year’s presidential election.
“The Democratic Progressive Party’s biggest opponent does not lie on the outside, Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) or the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT),” Chen said. “But it lies on the inside. The party is not united and everybody has his or her own axe to grind.”
Chen cast doubt on Hsieh’s campaign strategy, saying that while his party had initially hoped the KMT would split, they realized the game was up when the KMT remained solidly united.
Ma’s green card status appears to have been the Hsieh campaign’s only issue, Chen said, adding that it was just “one bad show dragging on for too long.”
Everybody wants to struggle upstream, Chen writes, but sometimes a person must make sacrifices in return for a bigger reward and sometimes a person messes up not because the person is stupid, but because he is too intelligent.
In response, Hsieh’s office yesterday issued a statement suggesting that Chen mind his own business because the popularity of the DPP and KMT were evident since the “three-in-one” election in 2005. Besides, Hsieh also shouldered responsibility for the election defeat.
The statement dismissed Chen’s description of his interactions with Hsieh as “false,” but said that Hsieh understood Chen’s state of mind.
“We do not mind as long as it helps the former president,” the statement said. “Hsieh hopes the former president can concentrate on his own legal case, because it is more important.”
SEND A MESSAGE: Sinking the amphibious assault ship, the lead warship of its class, is meant to show China the US Navy is capable of sinking their ships, an analyst said The US and allied navies plan to sink a 40,000-tonne ship at the latest Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise to simulate defeating a Chinese amphibious assault on Taiwan. This year’s RIMPAC — the 29th iteration of the world’s largest naval exercise — involves the US, 28 partners, more than 25,000 personnel, 40 warships, three submarines and more than 150 aircraft operating in and around Hawaii from yesterday to Aug. 1, the US Navy said in a press release. The major components of the event include multidomain warfare exercises in multiship surface engagements, anti-submarine warfare and multi-axis defense of a carrier strike
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
The airspace around Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) is to be closed for an hour on July 25 and July 23 respectively, due to the Han Kuang military exercises, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday. The annual exercise is to be held on Taiwan proper and its outlying islands from July 22 to 26. During last year’s exercise, the military conducted anti-aircraft landing drills at the Taoyuan airport for the first time, for which a one-hour no-fly ban was issued. Based on a live-fire bulletin sent out by the Maritime and Port Bureau, the nation’s
CROSS-BORDER CRIME: The suspects cannot be charged with cybercrime in Indonesia as their targets were in Malaysia, an Indonesian immigration director said Indonesian immigration authorities have detained 103 Taiwanese after a raid at a villa on Bali, officials said yesterday. They were accused of misusing their visas and residence permits, and are suspected of possible cybercrimes, Safar Muhammad Godam, director of immigration supervision and enforcement at the Indonesian Ministry of Law and Human Rights told reporters at a news conference. “The 103 foreign nationals stayed at the villa and conducted suspicious activities, which we suspect are activities related to cybercrime activities,” he said, presenting laptops and routers at the news conference. Godam said Indonesian authorities cannot charge them with conducting cybercrime. “During the inspection, we