The Republic of China (ROC) Constitution is no longer functioning and the real “Taiwan Constitution” is the 12 additional articles of the ROC Constitution, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) said yesterday as he wrapped up a three-day visit to Taitung County.
He made the remark during a stop in Luye Township (鹿野) in response to a reporter’s question about President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) recent comment that, according to the ROC Constitution, cross-strait relations are not state-to-state relations.
“What are the relations? Ma has to make that clear,” Lee said.
Lee, 90, played an instrumental role in most of the seven revisions or amendments to the Constitution between 1991 and 2005.
While the additional articles, which stipulate Taiwan is the “free area” of the ROC and China is the “mainland area,” state that they were enacted to “meet the requisite of the eventual national unification,” they reflected the de facto governance and state of the country after the ROC government fled to Taiwan after it lost the Chinese Civil War in 1949.
Lee said he described the model of relations between Taiwan and China as a “special state-to-state” relationship” in 1999 to clarify Taiwan’s sovereignty and status because the nation’s legal status is unique.
“[The case of Taiwan] is so unique and unprecedented that legal experts have yet to find an explanation and solution,” Lee said.
“Sandwiched between the superpowers of the US and China, Taiwan should know exactly what it is, stand its ground and try to maintain its right to act on its own before it becomes an ‘absolute country’ and a member of the United Nations,” Lee said.
Lee, who said while campaigning for Ma when he ran for Taipei mayor in 1998 that Ma was a “New Taiwanese” and there was no doubt about Ma’s Taiwanese identity, yesterday lamented Ma’s subsequent shift on identity and national status.
Asked if he still viewed Ma as a new Taiwanese, Lee did not give a direct answer, but said: “You know why the ‘old Taiwanese’ are angry at him.”
Lee criticized Ma for not handling cross-strait affairs with Taiwan’s interests as his priority.
He said that was why Ma was not insisting, during the negotiations on establishing cross-strait representative offices, on the rights of Taiwanese officials to visit ROC citizens detained in China and the authority of its planned representative offices in China to issue travel documents.
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