Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) was not qualified to be the president of the country because of his stubbornness in signing an economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China despite strong opposition from the public.
“Ma said he would write me a letter to invite me to talk with him [about the ECFA issue]. But if he only wants to use the occasion to have me endorse the ECFA, the meeting is totally unnecessary,” Tsai said.
Ma on Friday reiterated the government’s determination to sign an ECFA with China, saying it would prevent Taiwan from being marginalized amid regional economic development.
Stressing the urgency of the economic pact, Ma said the government planned to exchange ideas about the agreement with Beijing during the forthcoming round of cross-strait talks between Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Strait (ARATS) Chairman Chen Yunlin (陳雲林), scheduled for May or June in the Chinese capital.
Ma said that he expected more substantial details to be discussed after the third round of talks and that the two sides could reach a conclusion on certain details of the agreement by the end of this year.
Criticizing Ma as “missing the point,” Tsai yesterday said the president should solicit views from the opposition first, not make up his mind about what he wants to do and only then seek endorsement from the opposition.
“Dialogue with the president is pointless if he does not want to hear the opposition’s view,” Tsai said.
A number of pro-localization groups including Taiwan Association of University Professors and the Taiwan National Alliance are considering holding a protest on May 17 over Ma’s performance and the government’s proposal to sign an ECFA with China.
The date was selected to coincide with Ma’s first anniversary in office.
When asked for comment, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) yesterday urged independence groups to stay calm, and said protests would not be the best way to solve the problem.
“A rally won’t fix the economic crisis and other problems. It would be better if they gave solid advice to the government, rather than criticizing it all the time,” Wu said yesterday after attending a Hakka community forum in Taipei.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY MO YAN-CHIH
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but