Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) yesterday confirmed that he would visit Japan next month, health permitting, and said that an all-out war waged by North Korea was unlikely.
Kyodo news agency reported yesterday that Lee, 90, would travel to Japan and deliver speeches in Tokyo and Zama City, Kanagawa Prefecture.
Lee addressed a wide range of issues, including the possibility of a trip to Japan, the North Korean situation and political parties’ cross-strait policies, in a 20-minute media interview in Nanliao (南寮) on the first day of a two-day visit to Hsinchu County.
Photo: Hung Mei-hsiu, Taipei Times
When asked about a visit to Japan, Lee said it would depend on the result of a medical checkup later this month.
Lee has a chronic heart problem, metabolic arthritis and recently suffered a bout of the flu. If he makes the trip, it would be his sixth visit to Japan since leaving office in 2000, but his first since 2009.
Turning to the recent tensions in Northeast Asia, Lee said anyone who wants to wage a war, in this case North Korea, was not likely to resort to taunts and rhetoric.
Citing the Taiwan Strait crisis of 1996 during his presidency, Lee said that China had not alerted Taiwan prior to launching missiles. He added that North Korea could have hidden agenda behind its threats.
Lee laughed off a report this week by Control Yuan members Chou Yang-shan (周陽山) and Lee Ping-nan (李炳南) that quoted Shih Hsin University adjunct assistant professor Chi Chia-lin (戚嘉林) as saying that Lee was the illegitimate son of a Japanese father.
The accusation was false and those who made it up had a hidden motive, he said.
“I pray to God to forgive their sins and stupidity. Taiwan’s future is more important to me than things like this,” said Lee, a Christian.
Asked if the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party should seek a consensus on their policies toward China, Lee said they may not be able to find common ground, but they “should at least maintain a healthy relationship with each other.”
“Taiwan is Taiwan, China is China,” he said, adding that the most important tasks now are improving people’s livelihoods, and boosting employment and economic growth.
The KMT administration depends on Beijing’s assistance and favor in almost everything, which the DPP finds very hard to accept or emulate, Lee said.
With regards to Washington’s role in cross-strait relations, Lee said the US has always taken positions that serve its own interests and has always adjusted its policy according to the situation.
Lee visited Nanliao Harbor in the afternoon before delivering a speech, titled “Taiwanese in a new age,” at National Chiao Tung University.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
RSS