The top priority for Taiwan’s leader is avoiding war with China at a time of escalating tensions across the Taiwan Strait, said New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate.
In a speech on Thursday delivered at the American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan (AmCham), Hou said Taiwan must avoid war with China, and that only when it is safe and stable, can in attract investors around the world to pour resources into the country.
Hou said that if elected, he would maintain his long-held principles of safeguarding the country and bringing peace to the Taiwan Strait, and security and prosperity to Taiwan.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan has to take proactive and pragmatic moves to strengthen its self-defense capabilities to avoid the threat of war, he said.
At the same time, the two sides of the Taiwan Strait should have dialogue and conduct exchanges to reduce conflicts with equality, dignity and friendship, he said.
Under his proposed “3Ds strategy” of deterrence, dialogue and de-escalation, Taiwan would be able to facilitate peace and reduce risks, while continuing to cement ties with Washington and to maintain peace in the Indo-Pacific region, Hou said.
Industries in Taiwan are facing a tremendous challenge on energy and electricity, and he advocated an orderly transition to renewable energy to secure energy supplies, he said.
Hou said that he would carefully inspect and repair Taiwan’s three completed nuclear power plants, two of which have already been shut down for decommissioning, and establish a safety review committee to re-examine the decision to discontinue construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant.
Taiwan would also continue to pursue green energy development, while raising energy use efficiency by investing in energy conservation, storage, and smart electricity grid networks.
He would also push the development of hydrogen power and small power plants in a bid to allow Taiwan to achieve net zero emissions.
In other news, Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Thursday said if elected, he would extend compulsory education to include kindergarten, and high school or vocational education, in addition to the existing six years of elementary school and three years of junior-high school education.
To promote bilingual education, Ko proposed training bilingual teachers through various channels, including government-funded programs.
Free bilingual textbooks would also be available for grades 1 to 9, which would help bridge the resource gap between urban and rural areas, he added.
Ko also said that there is need for legislation to standardize the pricing of school lunches and address disparities in subsidy funding across counties and cities in Taiwan.
On Sept. 12, Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential candidate, said that if elected, he would implement tuition exemptions for senior-high schools and vocational schools.
In addition to providing a fixed annual subsidy of NT$35,000 for tuition and miscellaneous fees to private college students, economically disadvantaged students attending public colleges and universities can receive exemptions of up to NT$20,000 or NT$55,000 if they are enrolled in private colleges, Lai said.
The coast guard drove away 567 Chinese boats and seized seven illegally operating in Taiwanese waters in the first six months of this year, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. They mostly operated near Kinmen and Penghu counties, resulting in fines totaling NT$1.7 million (US$52,440), it said. Three ships — two near Kinmen County and one near Penghu County — were detained in January for illegally crossing the border, while one ship each was detained near Kinmen in February and Penghu in March respectively, it said. The ship seized near Penghu in January was the Yun Ao (雲澳), detained by the CGA’s
Military photovoltaic projects have been found to have used Chinese-made devices blacklisted by the government, including Huawei Technologies Co routers, the Ministry of National Defense’s Armaments Bureau said on Thursday. An ongoing investigation has identified the illegal use of 128 current transformers, two routers and a data reader at the Hungchailin Army Base, Pinghai Navy Base and Tri-Service General Hospital’s Songshan branch, it said. The devices were manufactured in the Chinese factories of German solar energy equipment supplier SMA Solar Technology, Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Delta Electronics Co, Chinese electronics manufacturer Huawei and Taiwanese industrial PC maker Advantech Co, the bureau said. The bureau’s
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant