The former leader of Thailand’s now-defunct Move Forward Party Pita Limjaroenrat was in Taiwan last week for the Yushan Forum, but the visit was not reported because of Pita’s desire to maintain a low profile at the event.
During a weekly briefing, Ministry of Foreign Affairs Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Director Peter Lan (藍夏禮) said Pita was invited by the organizers of the annual Yushan Forum to speak as a guest.
Lan confirmed that Pita was in Taiwan as a Harvard Kennedy School of Government academic and spoke on the forum’s second and final day on Tuesday last week in a morning roundtable session titled “Forging a New Common Vision for the Indo-Pacific.”
Photo: Bloomberg
Asked if Pita, a former member of the Thai House of Representatives, had any other meetings in Taiwan, Lan said he was in Taiwan only to attend the Yushan Forum and events related to it, without elaborating or explaining why Pita wanted it to remain low-key.
He did not take media inquiries while in Taiwan, and the only official recognition of his visit was a news release and photographs released by Yushan Forum organizers showing Pita speaking at the forum.
The Thai politician also posted a photograph of himself in a coffee shop in Taipei on March 16.
An unnamed source said that Pita might have wanted to stay low key because of Thai laws forbidding him from engaging in politics.
Pita led the Move Forward Party to become Thailand’s largest party in the 2023 general election and had announced his plan to be elected prime minister.
However, in the first round of parliamentary voting on July 13, 2023, he was not elected by the National Assembly because he lacked votes from the Thai Senate.
During an interview with CNA on May 2023, Pita said several of the policies adopted by his Move Forward Party and its prospective coalition partners were based on those implemented by Taiwan.
“A lot of our policies are based on the Taiwanese experience,” Pita said, citing the uniform invoice lottery system, which aims to encourage people to ask for a receipt in a bid to reduce tax evasion.
He also said that marriage equality was another issue where his party hoped to follow the lead of Taiwan.
Pita resigned as leader of Move Forward Party in September 2023.
In August last year, the party was disbanded by the Thai Constitutional Court in a ruling that barred Pita and other party executives from politics for 10 years.
He later became a member of the Move Forward successor, the People’s Party, and began a fellowship at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government late last year.
The Yushan Forum, hosted by the ministry and the Taiwan-Asia Exchange Foundation, aims to deepen Taiwan’s partnerships with countries in Asia and beyond by fostering regional dialogue and expanding multilateral opportunities for cooperation, the event’s Web site says.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
DEFENSE: The National Security Bureau promised to expand communication and intelligence cooperation with global partners and enhance its strategic analytical skills China has not only increased military exercises and “gray zone” tactics against Taiwan this year, but also continues to recruit military personnel for espionage, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday in a report to the Legislative Yuan. The bureau submitted the report ahead of NSB Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign and National Defense Committee today. Last year, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted “Joint Sword-2024A and B” military exercises targeting Taiwan and carried out 40 combat readiness patrols, the bureau said. In addition, Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s airspace 3,070 times last year, up about
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
RSS