President William Lai’s (賴清德) “motherland” remarks at the Double Ten National Day gala on Saturday received mixed reaction, drawing applause from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers and criticism from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers.
Lai in his address at the gala said that the Republic of China (ROC) would mark its 113th anniversary on Thursday, while the People’s Republic of China (PRC) — whose National Day is on Oct. 1 — marked only its 75th anniversary.
“Therefore, it is impossible for the PRC to be the motherland of the ROC,” he said.
Photo: CNA
DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) yesterday said that Lai successfully rebutted with basic facts and solid logic those who claim that the PRC is the ROC’s motherland, and what he said was undeniable.
As the head of state of Taiwan, Lai aims to unify as many Taiwanese as possible, so he based his statement on the greatest possible common ground among the 23.5 million people of Taiwan, he said.
The reasoning behind Lai’s statement lies in the principle of popular sovereignty embodied in Article 2 of the Constitution of the ROC (Taiwan), which says that “the sovereignty of the ROC shall reside in the whole body of citizens,” Wang said.
Since people of the PRC are not citizens of the ROC, they certainly do not share sovereignty with the ROC, he added.
Citing Lai’s remarks that “the 113-year-old ROC could have instead been the motherland for people of the PRC aged 75 and older,” DPP Legislator Hsu Chih-chieh (許智傑) yesterday said Lai’s statement was clear, logical and an innovative interpretation of cross-strait relations from a Taiwanese viewpoint.
On the other hand, KMT Legislator Lee Yen-hsiu (李彥秀) yesterday said Lai made a blunder at the gala on Saturday.
If Lai’s logic stands, Lee asked: “would the Empire of Japan — who ruled Taiwan from 1895 to 1945 — not be the motherland for Taiwanese aged 80 and older?”
She said she felt sorry for the ROC and the Taiwanese public as their head of state only focused his efforts on ideological clashes and flamboyant bickering.
KMT Legislator Wang Hung-wei (王鴻薇) yesterday said all the people at the gala on Saturday partook in the event to celebrate the birthday of the ROC, not the PRC, “and most of them have greater recognition of the ROC than Lai.”
The person who does not recognize the ROC might be Lai himself, she added.
Taiwan People’s Party spokeswoman Lin Tzu-yu (林子宇) yesterday urged Lai not to exploit the ROC to serve his political ends, adding that the ROC in Taiwan has become a historical fact since it took over Taiwan on behalf of the Allied powers in 1945.
The PRC certainly cannot be the motherland for the people of the ROC, and it is unnecessary to argue about who is the motherland of the other, as the ROC and the PRC are completely opposite to each other as political systems, she added.
Additional reporting by Lin Che-yuan
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) is maintaining close ties with Beijing, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday, hours after a new round of Chinese military drills in the Taiwan Strait began. Political parties in a democracy have a responsibility to be loyal to the nation and defend its sovereignty, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) told a news conference in Taipei. His comments came hours after Beijing announced via Chinese state media that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s Eastern Theater Command was holding large-scale drills simulating a multi-pronged attack on Taiwan. Contrary to the KMT’s claims that it is staunchly anti-communist, KMT Deputy
RSS