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.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow
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