Independence activists yesterday said President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had disqualified himself as a national leader following his controversial remark that Taiwan “will never ask the Americans to fight for Taiwan in a war.”
The Taiwan Nation Alliance and Taiwan National Security Institute issued a joint statement, in Chinese and English, denouncing Ma for seriously compromising Taiwan's security and discrediting himself as Taiwan's head of state.
They said Ma's remarks “fundamentally contravene the majority will of the people of Taiwan” and that the overwhelming majority of Taiwanese welcomed US support for maintaining peace and security in the Taiwan Strait, including dispatching soldiers if necessary.
They also said the will of the majority dovetailed with the US interest of seeing a democratic, free and prosperous Taiwan and maintaining peace and security in the East Asian region.
Ma's submission to China would lead to the ultimate extinction of Taiwan and turmoil in East Asia, they said.
Ma's comment would pave the way for China's military conquest of Taiwan and his attempt to sell out Taiwan would be repudiated by Taiwanese in the presidential election in 2012, they said.
They appealed to the US to continue to sell Taiwan defensive weapons, including F-16C/D fighter jets and submarines, and maintain its commitment to safeguarding peace and security in the Taiwan Strait.
Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文) said Ma seemed to speak on behalf of China rather than Taiwan.
“What he said runs against Taiwan's security and national interest,” he said. “Taiwan needs international support and we must accelerate the effort to build a Taiwanese nation.”
Taiwan New Century Foundation chairman Chen Lung-chu (陳隆志) said Ma made a “big blunder” when he made the remarks and Ma did not speak for most Taiwanese.
“We the Taiwanese people realize that we must do our utmost to defend and protect our nation,” Chen said. “But in a globalized world of ever increasing interdependence and danger, which country in the world can really stand alone? Collective security of mutual defense and assistance is the answer.”
Chen said Taiwan now has a president who has shown “every sign of leaning on China and of submitting to China's will in [Ma's] pursuit of so-called ‘ultimate unification with China,’” adding that Ma betrayed his campaign promises and acted against the popular will of the Taiwanese people.
Saying Ma’s remarks would invite great disaster, former representative to Japan Koh Se-kai (許世楷) said he hoped Ma made the remarks out of ignorance and not intentionally.
Reverend William Luo (羅榮光) of the Presbyterian Church urged Taiwanese voters “never” to elect Ma again, describing him as dictatorial and determined to sell out Taiwan.
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
A decision to describe a Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement on Singapore’s Taiwan policy as “erroneous” was made because the city-state has its own “one China policy” and has not followed Beijing’s “one China principle,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Chung-kwang (田中光) said yesterday. It has been a longstanding practice for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) to speak on other countries’ behalf concerning Taiwan, Tien said. The latest example was a statement issued by the PRC after a meeting between Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on the sidelines of the APEC summit
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
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