An advocacy group focusing on opposition to the so-called “one China” principle and the erosion of Taiwan’s sovereignty under President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration is set to be established on Monday, the group’s founding members told a press conference yesterday.
The Anti-One China Principle Union is a non-partisan group cofounded by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Mark Chen (陳唐山), Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信) and former DPP lawmaker Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮).
Acknowledgement of the “one China” principle — the core strategy of China’s Taiwan policy — could jeopardize Taiwan’s sovereignty, democracy, freedom and human rights, they said.
“However, the Ma administration’s pro-Beijing stance and the DPP’s failure to monitor the administration and its tendency to move to a more China-friendly position have aroused concern over the gradual erosion of sovereignty,” Chen said.
Chai will serve as the president of the union, with Chen and Hsu as vice presidents, Hsu said, adding that other notable members include former premier Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃) and former Examination Yuan president Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文). Former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and former presidential adviser Peng Ming-min (彭明敏) are to serve as consultants.
Chai and Chen criticized former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) for his “pro-Beijing position.”
Responding to the criticism yesterday afternoon in a radio interview with Cheng Hong-yi (鄭弘儀), Hsieh denied that he “had betrayed Taiwan’s independence movement” and said that “closer engagement with China did not mean surrender.”
Hsieh, who advocates a moderate China policy with his initiative of “constitutions with different interpretations,” described himself as a “pragmatic idealist” and very different from the “hardliners” of the pro-independence wing, such as Chai and Chen.
“They insist on their belief, while I’m an idealist who focuses on reality. We should work together to strive for Taiwan’s dignity,” Hsieh said.
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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
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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