Thu, Dec 14, 2023 page3

• DPP urges China to focus on its people, not Taiwan

  ‘ONE CHINA’ DEBATE: ’The CCP is treading its old road of totalitarian rule,’ the party said after the TAO criticized Hsiao Bi-khim’s comments on keeping the ‘status quo’

  • By Chen Yun and Jason Pan / Staff reporters
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  China should establish democracy for its own people instead of denigrating Taiwanese, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday after China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) said the party was on a dead-end road by “advocating sovereignty and self-rule.”

  The DPP’s vice presidential candidate, former representative to the US Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴), on Tuesday told university students that “maintaining the status quo in the Taiwan Strait might not be satisfactory to many people, but it is the favored outcome in the international community.”

  TAO spokeswoman Zhu Fenglian (朱鳳蓮) yesterday said that the campaign slogan of Vice President William Lai (賴清德), the DPP’s presidential candidate, was leading Taiwan on the road to independence.

  

  Chen Shi-kai, spokesman for the campaign office of the Democratic Progressive Party’s presidential candidate, Vice President William Lai, speak at a news conference in Taipei yesterday.

  Photo: Courtesy of William Lai’s campaign headquarters

  The campaign slogan — “Make the right choice, proceed on the right path” — is a call for people to vote for “independence activists,” Zhu said.

  “They are troublemakers, saboteurs of peace and architects of war,” she said. “This path of Taiwanese independence is on the road to ruin, it is a dead-end road.”

  “We hope our compatriots in Taiwan would think of their personal safety and happiness, and steadfastly oppose Taiwanese independence,” she said.

  “There is only one China, and Taiwan belongs to this one China,” she said. “Taiwan is an inseparable part of China’s sovereignty and its territory.”

  “Maintaining the status quo means we cannot permit Taiwanese independence,” Zhu said.

  Later yesterday, Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱), spokesman for Lai’s campaign office, told reporters: “The Chinese Communist Party [CCP] is treading its old road of totalitarian rule by concentrating political power.”

  “It does not know what democracy is, nor does it understand that people have the right to freedom,” Chen said.

  “China does not have regular general elections, which is why talk from Beijing always contradicts the views of global democracies,” he said.

  “Instead of meddling in Taiwan’s elections, the CCP regime should allow the 1.4 billion Chinese to participate in democratic elections,” he said.

  “It is clear that China must have democracy to engage with the world,” Chen said. “China’s persistent intimidation is not conducive to dialogue between the two sides.”

  “It is our shared responsibility to maintain peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait,” he added.

  Separately, former DPP deputy secretary-general Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) said that the numerous controversial comments of former Kaohsiung mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) were reason to make sure he does not get a chance to be legislative speaker.

  The KMT has placed Han first on its list of legislator-at-large nominees and it typically names its No. 1 pick as speaker when it wins a legislative majority.

  Lin said that he is heading a campaign to “reject Han as speaker.

  Han has several black marks against his name, including being the first municipal mayor to be recalled after a vote in 2020.

  He garnered more votes in the recall than he did to become mayor of Kaohsiung in 2018, Lin said.

  Han was also the first municipal mayor or county commissioner to meet with the head of the de facto representative office of the Chinese central government in Hong Kong on a trip in March 2019, less than half a year after being elected Kaohsiung mayor, Lin said.

  It led to resentment in Taiwan, Hong Kong and the international community, because the office is symbolic of China’s broken promises for Hong Kongers to govern themselves under the “one country, two systems” model, he said.

  “With Taiwanese going to the polls next month, many people have forgotten the actions and comments of Han,” Lin said. “We must mobilize people to support the ‘Reject Han’ movement and prevent him from becoming speaker.”

  “Everyone must rally and fight to protect our legislature,” he added.

  Additional reporting by Chung Li-hua
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