Mon, Jul 24, 2023 page2

• Lai, Ko ratchet up campaigning

  • By Chen Chien-chih and Lo Hsin-chen / Staff reporters
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  Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday attended a series of events for supporter groups as they ratchet up their campaigns.

  Lai launched a supporters’ club of religious groups in central Taiwan, with more than 500 organizations participating in the event in Taichung.

  Taiwan’s religious freedoms have been acknowledged by the world and are manifest in the nation’s 17,800 temples, 1,500 religious foundations and 3,400 religious corporations, he said.

  

  Vice President William Lai, front, center, gestures during a launch of a club in support of his election campaign for president in Taichung yesterday.

  Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times

  Taiwan received a perfect score on religious freedom and an overall score of 94 out of 100 points — placing it second in Asia, behind Japan — in this year’s Freedom in the World report compiled by US-based Freedom House, he said.

  Taiwan is a great society because it allows religions to develop freely, he said.

  Separately, 1,500 people gathered in Taichung to join Lai’s launch of a supporters’ club of young businesspeople.

  

  Taiwan People’s Party Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je, front, center, gives a thumb-up during a group photo with supporters in Pingtung yesterday.

  Photo: CNA

  The DPP is a peace-loving party, Lai told the group, adding that it fought for Taiwan’s democracy and would fight for peace.

  Peace is not achieved by signing an agreement, which can be broken as it has been in Tibet and Hong Kong, he said.

  However, Taiwan is willing to talk to China as long as the principles of dignity and equality are adhered to, he added.

  Meanwhile, supporters’ clubs for Ko were launched in Kaohsiung and Pingtung.

  The TPP aims to unite Taiwan and end the bitter rivalries between the DPP and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), Ko told supporters.

  The most important goal of January’s presidential election is to establish a united and independent Taiwan that can bravely face the world, he said.

  The TPP is often criticized as lacking talent, but that might be an advantage, he said, adding that people do not believe major parties when they say they are forming a coalition government.

  “People will believe us when we say we are forming a coalition government,” he said, adding that the TPP aims to gather talent from across Taiwan, regardless of their political leaning, to serve the country.

  “Coalition government, unity of Taiwan” is the TPP’s slogan, he said.

  Ko said he hopes that Taiwan is seen as Formosa — a beautiful island — instead of a dangerous place where war seems imminent, as depicted by foreign media.

  Taiwan should be a bridge of communication between Beijing and Washington, not a pawn in the confrontation between the two, he said.

  Taiwan should be a united and harmonious society, not a country of division and hatred, he added.
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