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.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
Lawmakers from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday established a friendship group with their counterparts in Ukraine to promote parliamentary exchanges between the two countries. A ceremony in Taipei for the Taiwan-Ukraine Parliamentary Friendship Association, initiated by DPP Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷), was attended by lawmakers and officials, including Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) and European Economic and Trade Office in Taiwan Director Lutz Gullner. The increasingly dire situation in Ukraine is a global concern, and Taiwan cannot turn its back when the latter is in need of help, as the two countries share many common values and interests,
RSS