Tue, Jul 22, 2014 - Page 8
For the time being, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is able to evade the controversial proposal to freeze the party’s Taiwan independence clause after DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) sent it to the party’s Central Executive Committee for further discussion at the party congress on Sunday.
Rest assured that the issue is set to cause infighting and fiery debate within the party in the future. When it comes to independence, things have always been complex.
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Initiators of the controversial proposal to freeze the Taiwan independence clause in the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) charter yesterday said that DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) reserving the proposal for future discussion was a “wise decision.”
“[Tsai’s handling of the proposal] was good for the party... I respect her move. It was a wise decision,” former DPP legislator Chen Zau-nan (陳昭南), who drafted the proposal with former DPP legislator Julian Kuo (郭正亮), told a radio interview hosted by Clara Chou (周玉蔻).
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
If the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is able to do well in the seven-in-one elections in November, Beijing would have no option but to adjust its strategy toward the party because it has always been pragmatic, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said in an interview.
“Simply put, whoever seizes the momentum, others would shift toward the powerful side,” Tsai said in response to a question about the DPP’s relations with Beijing in an interview with the Chinese-language CommonWealth Magazine published on Wednesday.
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Increasing yuan deposits in Taiwan without sufficient regulation could exacerbate the nation’s economic dependence on China in the future and leave the banking industry open to Chinese manipulation, a Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) lawmaker said yesterday.
Citing central bank statistics, TSU Legislator Lai Cheng-chang (賴振昌) told a press conference that the total amount of yuan in Taiwan as of May this year was more than NT$290 billion (US$9.63 billion), of which more than 60 percent was deposited at the Bank of China’s Taipei branch.
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Taiwan should seize the opportunity presented by Japan’s recent removal of a ban on collective self-defense and seek to upgrade bilateral relations on economic and security cooperation, a think tank said yesterday.
“As a think tank, we support Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s removal of the ban on collective self-defense rights because it benefits Taiwan’s security,” Taiwan Brain Trust executive director Liu Shih-chung (劉世忠) told a symposium.
CROSS-STRAIT EXCHANGES:While support for a Ma-Xi meeting has waned, 62 percent of respondents back regular visits by ministerial-level officials to push peace
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Public support for a meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) appears to have plummeted in the past year, with the majority of respondents in a public opinion survey released yesterday saying such a meeting was unnecessary.
The poll, conducted by Taiwan Indicators Survey Research, asked respondents if they support a meeting between Ma and Xi before Ma’s term ends in 2016, and found that 54.4 percent opposed it, 26.5 percent said it was necessary and 19.1 percent gave no answer.
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Neither the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) nor Beijing came out as a winner in the just-concluded visit of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍), panelists said in a symposium in Taipei yesterday.
Reviewing the first visit by a Chinese minister to Taiwan in more than six decades, which was dogged by protests during its four days, panelists told the forum organized by the pro-independence Taiwan Brain Trust that the trip was only a “publicity drive” for Zhang, with the Taiwanese government sidelined.
DEMOCRACY AT RISK?The DPP said that cross-strait negotiations since the ECFA was signed have affected the economy and put the nation’s democracy at risk
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
The Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) has failed to bring promised prosperity for Taiwan and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration was irresponsible in hastily pushing through the pact, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said yesterday on the fourth anniversary of the signing of the cross-strait pact.
Dubbed by international media as a “landmark agreement” upon its signing on June 29, 2009, it was signed without an impact assessment or sector-by-sector analysis, and the negotiation process was not monitored by the legislature, DPP spokesperson Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said in a press release.
YOUNG AND DISCONTENTED:：During the symposium participants said that the majority of protesters were young people which showed the changing political climate in Taiwan
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Mon, Jun 30, 2014 - Page 1
The recently concluded visit of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) exposed the danger of the President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) administration’s attempt to merge “two distinctively different civilizations and the fragility of Taiwan’s democracy and civic society,” panelists at a symposium said yesterday.
“Never think that the tragedy of the 228 Incident cannot happen in the 21st century,” retired National Taiwan University professor Kenneth Lin (林向愷) told the symposium, organized by the Taiwan Association of University Professors.
Sun, Jun 29, 2014 - Page 8
For any democratically elected administration, it is perhaps neither a smart nor a justified move to be the enemy of young people, who are supposed to be the future of the nation, and the media, the eyes and ears of the people. President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration has been able to achieve both.
During the four-day visit by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍), the administration used what appeared to be disproportionate state violence against young people who protested the Chinese official’s visit.
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Fri, Jun 27, 2014 - Page 3
Those who oppose the cross-strait service trade agreement are in the minority, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview with English-language magazine Forbes Asia last week, in which he warned that the opposition pose a “major challenge” to the nation’s democracy.
The June 19 interview touched on a wide range of issues, including the divisive service trade pact, national security and the year-end elections. The magazine published an excerpt of the interview online yesterday, with the full version to be published in print on July 21.
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) is not hearing “the true voices of Taiwanese” as he tours the nation, but rather those of pro-China businesspeople and of Chinese spouses and students living in Taiwan, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) said yesterday.
Prior to leaving on his first trip to Taiwan, Zhang said he wanted to hear what the nation’s citizens have to say, in particular those who Beijing has dubbed the “three middles and the youth (三中一青)” — residents of central and southern Taiwan; middle and low-income families; small and medium-sized enterprises; and young people.
By Chris Wang and Alison Hsiao / Staff reporters
Thu, Jun 26, 2014 - Page 3
Opposition parties yesterday accused the National Security Bureau (NSB) and the police of breaking into a hotel room near Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to expel people they suspected would protest against China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍), saying the act was a serious violation of human rights and an abuse of power.
Members of Democracy Tautin who checked into room No. 649 of the Novotel Hotel near the airport accused the bureau and the police of breaking into their room without a search warrant yesterday morning and ordering them to leave prior to the Zhang’s arrival.
CHINA OFFICIAL VISITS:：Activists said that they were deprived of their freedom and told to vacate their rooms at the Novotel just because Zhang Zhijun was visiting
By Loa Iok-sin / Staff reporter
Thu, Jun 26, 2014 - Page 1
Activists yesterday accused the government of abuse of power after a group of “unidentified people” charged into their rooms at the Novotel in Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport and demanded that they move out before China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) was to meet his Taiwanese counterpart, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Wang Yu-chi (王郁琦), at the hotel.
Rights activist and attorney Lai Chung-chiang (賴中強) condemned the government and Novotel over the hotel’s treatment of him as a guest.
Tue, Jun 24, 2014 - Page 8
Six years after President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) entered office, Taiwanese have realized that Ma has a bizarre sense of justice, historical understanding and foreign policy direction, as well as a distorted national pride.
In a long list of diplomatic incidents during the past six years, the embattled president has always tried to deflect public scrutiny about his weaknesses and incompetence in domestic affairs by resorting to hawkish positions and disproportionate measures against other countries.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday urged Beijing to respect the result of an ongoing “illegal” referendum on democratic reform, that has drawn nearly 650,000 votes since it opened online, as it voiced support for Hong Kongers’ aspiration for democracy and reform. “As the referendum is ongoing, we think that more people will cast their votes. This has been a victory for all Hong Kongers. We call for Beijing to respect the result and Hong Kongers’ expression of their ideals in a peaceful and rational manner,” Department of China Affairs director Chao Tien-lin (趙天麟) said. The DPP has been watching the situation in Hong Kong closely, not only because Taiwan paid a dear price en route to attaining democracy but also because democracy, human rights and liberty are universal values, Chao said.
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
If China’s Taiwan Affairs Office Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) mentions the “one China framework” and says Taiwan’s future should be decided by all Chinese people in his four-day visit to Taiwan, the government should immediately deport him, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus said yesterday.
As Zhang’s visit between tomorrow and Saturday is to mark the first visit of a Chinese official in their official capacity, the DPP and pan-green camp supporters were closely watching his itinerary, potential moves and the political implication of his trip.
‘DOUBLE STANDARD’:The groups said Zhang Zhijun’s visit comes at a bad time after the TAO’s recent remarks, and Ma was weak on China, but hawkish on other nations
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
Pro-independence groups yesterday said that they opposed the upcoming nationwide “inspection tour” by China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) Minister Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) and called for President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to stop applying “double standards” to Taiwan’s engagement with China compared with other foreign countries.
“We have a three-point statement for recent political development. First, Taiwan’s future should be decided by its 23 million people and no one else. Second, Ma should stop his ‘double standards’ and, third, the itinerary of Zhang’s visit to Taiwan should follow conventional diplomatic practice,” Taiwan Society president Chang Yen-hsien (張炎憲) told a press conference.
UNDER THREAT:：The Next Media Group and a Hong Kong referendum Web site were hacked, presumably by China, but both said they would not bow to attacks on democracy
By Yang Yuan-ting and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer and Reuters
Thu, Jun 19, 2014 - Page 1
Taiwan’s Apple Daily yesterday issued a statement condemning the hacking of the Next Media Group’s (壹傳媒集團) Web sites earlier yesterday, saying that it was a severe infringement on media liberty and political oppression against Hong Kongers’ efforts toward democracy.
The Apple Daily statement said there was reason to believe that the attacks originated from China and were meant to batter the determination of Hong Kongers to achieve democracy, and to attack the pro-general elections Next Media Group, because the electronic voting system set up to gather support for general elections in Hong Kong had also gone down.
By Chris Wang / Staff reporter
President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) free economic pilot zones policy is based on faulty logic, which assumes more market opening would lead to economic prosperity, without recognizing the importance of upgrading Taiwan’s industrial structure, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.
Engaged in a debate in the past two weeks with the Ma administration over the impact of the planned pilot zone project, which looks to serve as a model for business convenience and liberalization, Tsai wrote an open letter, published by the Chinese-language Apple Daily yesterday.