The Taiwanese representative office in Washington responded sharply on Friday to an op-ed article that quoted critics accusing President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of undermining the country’s sovereignty.
The article, published in the Washington Times, was written by Taiwan Institute of Political, Economic and Strategic Studies chief executive Parris Chang (張旭成), and the rebuttal came from Frank Wang (王億), director of the press division at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) in Washington.
Chang said in the op-ed that most Taiwanese opinion polls showed Ma trailing Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in the upcoming presidential election.
“Critics fault Mr Ma’s government for pre-emptive concessions to the communist government [in China] and charge that his strategy has undermined Taiwan’s sovereignty and compromised its de facto independence,” he added.
In his response, Wang accused Chang of alleging that Ma’s policies have undermined sovereignty, when Chang had actually said that Ma’s critics made the charge.
Wang said in a press release issued from Washington that Chang’s op-ed was “misinforming.”
He went on to claim that Ma’s policies had improved cross-strait relations and enhanced regional stability and prosperity “a fact that [US] President [Barack] Obama and [US] Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have publicly praised.”
Politicians from both major parties have expressed concern about the way the Obama administration has supported Ma in a seeming attempt to boost his re-election chances.
There are worries that Washington will be accused of interfering in the Taiwanese elections at a time when it should be strictly neutral.
Chang said that Ma’s economic engagement with China had been responsible for capital flight and accelerated the movement of Taiwan’s manufacturing to China.
“Consequently, more that 1 million blue-collar and white-collar workers in Taiwan have lost their jobs,” he said. “While Taiwan’s close economic links with China have benefited Taiwan’s big businesses and foreign multinationals, unemployment remains high, and incomes are shrinking.”
“Given Mr Ma’s present high disapproval rating, running close to 70 percent, if polling were held now, he would probably lose his re-election bid, and Taiwanese voters would likely elect the first female president in Taiwan’s history,” Chang wrote.
Washington-based observers said that it was unusual for TECRO to respond on Ma’s behalf during an election campaign and that it left the “troubling impression” that Ma was using government staff to support his re-election bid.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS