President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) should explain to the public his view of the relationship between Taiwan and China after former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) chairman Wu Poh-hsiung (吳伯雄) made a controversial “one country, two areas” proposal in Bejing, former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.
“It was a dangerous statement and if President Ma accepts that one country represents the ROC [Republic of China], then he needs to explain the difference between the ROC and the PRC [People’s Republic of China], and the relationship between them,” Tsai said on the sidelines of a digital teleconference, during which she talked with Chinese dissident Wang Dan (王丹).
Ma has been deliberately vague in his interpretation of cross-strait relations, she said, adding that he also needed to explain if the “one country, two areas” initiative was Wu’s own proposal.
Meanwhile, former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) posted a Facebook message yesterday, saying that although the amended ROC Constitution did contain the terms “Mainland area and Taiwan area,” those terms delineated a special arrangement relating specifically to cross-strait exchanges.
“It was not a statement with sovereignty-related implications. The Constitution should be interpreted in a way that benefits people most,” Hsieh wrote.
DPP Legislator Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) echoed Hsieh’s view, saying that the Constitutional amendment was “only an arrangement of expedience.”
Ma should not have allowed Wu to make such a statement, Lee said, because he pledged during his re-election campaign that he would discuss major national and social issues with opposition leaders after the election.
Although Ma has reiterated that Taiwan’s future should be determined by the 23 million Taiwanese, DPP Legislator Pan Men-an (潘孟安) said that he was now making unilateral decisions and turning his back on the people.
Former DPP legislator Kuo Cheng-liang (郭正亮) said that he thought the DPP had shot itself in the foot with its opposition to the “two areas” proposal.
During the DPP’s eight years in power, he said, it had neither amended the Constitution and scrapped the Act Governing Relations Between the Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) nor changed the existing cross-strait exchange platform between the Mainland Affairs Council and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office.
“Wasn’t that a tacit continuation and recognition of ‘one country, two areas?’” Kuo said.
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