Tue, Oct 11, 2022 page2

• Double Ten National Day: KMT criticizes president’s address

  OPPOSING METHODS: The Tsai administration has not taken concrete action to improve cross-strait relations, the KMT said, while promoting its ‘double D’ strategy

  • By Lin Liang-sheng and Liu Tzu-hsuan / Staff reporter, with staff writer
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  President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) actions on cross-strait issues put the country at risk, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) said yesterday in response to her Double Ten National Day speech.

  In her address, Tsai highlighted her administration’s position that it is willing to find a “mutually agreeable arrangement” to uphold peace and stability provided there is “rationality, equality and mutual respect” with Beijing.

  The KMT said in a statement that despite her willingness to work with Beijing on a mutually acceptable path to peace across the Taiwan Strait, her administration “has never taken concrete actions” to do so.

  

  Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu addresses a crowd at a flag-raising ceremony held by the party at its headquarters in Taipei yesterday.

  Photo: CNA

  Tsai wants Taiwanese and Chinese to gradually resume normal exchanges as the two sides reopen borders after COVID-19 restrictions, while turning a blind eye to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers’ provocative behavior toward China, the KMT said.

  Although the president emphasized her administration’s commitment to improving information transparency and identifying disinformation, the government has not disclosed documents related to COVID-19 vaccine procurement, which were classified as confidential and would remain sealed for 30 years, the KMT said.

  The Presidential Office is known to be a “false information production center,” it added, calling on the Tsai administration to stop restricting freedom of speech and freedom of the press under the excuse of identifying false information.

  Earlier yesterday at a flag-raising ceremony held by the KMT at its headquarters in Taipei to commemorate Double Ten National Day, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) reiterated that his party is determined to “build peace in the Taiwan Strait, safeguard the Republic of China [ROC] and protect the region.”

  Asked if he would press Tsai at a holiday ceremony on her administration’s use of “Taiwan National Day” — which former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has opposed, preferring “ROC National Day” — Chu said that Tsai would likely only give her speech and not interact with anyone, which he said was what happened last year.

  “Safeguarding the ROC is not only the stance taken by the KMT, but the shared position of all Taiwanese,” he said.

  The DPP should not keep thinking about minimizing the ROC or even eliminating it, he said.

  The DPP promoting a sense of impending national doom for its own political interest is “nothing new,” but the KMT has proposed a more concrete “double D” strategy of “defense and dialogue,” he said.

  The proposal calls for Taiwan to build up its defense capabilities, while keeping a channel open for dialogue with Beijing for threat reduction and crisis management, he said.

  Chu said that Tsai uses her Double Ten National Day speeches to promote her policies, while creating new slogans every year that would not help achieve her goals.

  Taiwanese want to know “whether the ROC has become better,” he said, adding that if the value of democracy and freedom as well as the press are being controlled, “how can people live a good life?”
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