Taiwan ‘need not’ choose sides on zone

QUESTION OF APPROACH:：A former US State Department official said the key issue about the zone is governments in the region approaching disputes through dialogue
By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter
Thu, Dec 05, 2013 - Page 3

Taiwan’s handling of Beijing’s demarcation of an air defense identification zone (ADIZ) is not a matter of choosing between the US-Japan alliance and China, and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration’s call for resolving the dispute through dialogue is welcome, former US deputy secretary of state James Steinberg said yesterday.

“It is a question of all the governments in the region trying to reach and approach their disputes with dialogues and discussions” despite differences of opinion about sovereignty and territory, Steinberg said in response to a media inquiry.

Legislature votes on CEC

The Legislative Yuan yesterday voted to retain Central Election Commission (CEC) Chairperson Chang Po-ya (張博雅) and Vice Chairperson Liu Yi-chou (劉義周) in their posts, and approved four nominees to the commission. After legislators cast their ballots along party lines, Chang, 71, and Liu both won another four-year term by a margin of 65-42, with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers endorsing the Executive Yuan’s nominees and the opposition parties voting against them. The Democratic Progressive Party caucus said it voted against the nominations because President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had used the commission as a political tool during the so-called “September strife” and because the candidates did not include representatives from the opposition.

Former premier wins DPP primary for New Taipei

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Former premier Yu Shyi-kun won the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) primary for the New Taipei City (新北市) mayoral election next year after defeating former lawmaker Chuang Shuo-han (莊碩漢) in a public opinion poll, the party announced yesterday.

Yu, who served as premier from 2002 to 2005, is expected to be nominated as the DPP candidate in next month’s Central Executive Committee meeting, DPP Secretary-General Lin Hsi-yao (林錫耀) told a press conference.

Schools to teach Nanjing is ROC capital: ministry

POSITIONING:：In a document sent to schools across the nation, the Ministry of Education said teachers should clearly explain the positioning of the ROC capital
By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter
Wed, Dec 04, 2013 - Page 1

A government document ordering schools’ procurement of teaching materials that mark Nanjing as the capital of the Republic of China (ROC) and Taipei as the current location of the central government indicated President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration’s persistent attempts to promote the links between Taiwan and China, as well as the administration’s misinterpretation of the Constitution, lawmakers and academics said yesterday.

A photograph posted by National Taipei University of Education professor Lee Hsiao-feng (李筱峰) on Facebook yesterday, which showed a Ministry of Education document issued on Monday to schools nationwide, went viral on the Internet.

EDITORIAL: DPP and KMT not moving forward

This November marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of US president John F. Kennedy, and the fifth year since former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) was detained and imprisoned on charges of corruption.

On Nov. 22, 1963, Kennedy, one of the most beloved and respected presidents in US history, was assassinated in Dallas, Texas. However, the premature end to Kennedy’s presidency did not erase him from people’s memory.

Quite the contrary, what Kennedy did and said during his three-year period in the White House was — and still is — able to inspire the American people.

Students vow to fight for same-sex marriage

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

Dozens of university student associations and student organizations across the country yesterday announced the establishment of an alliance to support the legalization of same-sex marriage, saying that the time is ripe for such a change to eliminate discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Citing the results of several public opinion polls conducted by various institutions in the past year, student representatives said at a press conference in front of the Legislative Yuan in Taipei that more than half of the respondents supported revising Article 972 of the Civil Code and legalizing same-sex marriage.

Jailed activists’ daughters ask government for help

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

The daughters of two imprisoned Chinese dissidents yesterday at an international press conference appealed for the government’s assistance to help rescue their fathers, while Taiwanese human rights activists demanded that President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) call on Beijing to release 18 political prisoners.

“My father has always seen Taiwan’s democracy as a model for China. Hopefully, the Taiwanese government and the Taiwanese people will not let him down,” Ti-anna Wang (王天安), daughter of activist Wang Bingzhang (王炳章), told a public hearing at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.

Netizens allege conspiracy over accidents

By Chen Ching-min and Stacy Hsu  /  Staff reporter, with staff writer
Mon, Dec 02, 2013 - Page 3

Two accidents and other incidents involving activists has spurred speculation on the Internet that the incidents might have been “carefully orchestrated” by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in an effort to eliminate dissidents.

The administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who also doubles as KMT chairman, has been bombarded with criticism for the past year over a wide range of issues, from the forced demolition of four houses in Miaoli County’s Dapu Borough (大埔) and the controversial cross-strait service trade agreement to the death of army corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘) in July and the fate of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao Dictrict (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市).

DPP camp held for Chinese students to boost understanding

By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has taken a first step toward closer engagement with Chinese students in Taiwan with a two-day student camp, hoping the activity will foster better understanding between the two sides.

In the camp, held on Saturday and yesterday by the party’s think tank, 34 students focused on democracy and human rights as well as Taiwan’s history and its struggle for human rights.

Cairo Declaration as legal basis incorrect: advocates

‘FALSE PERCEPTION’:A history professor said that the president’s interpretation of the Cairo Declaration could bolster Beijing’s sovereignty claim over the Diaoyutai Islands
By Chris Wang  /  Staff reporter

President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) interpretation of the Cairo Declaration, issued on Dec. 1, 1943, as the legal basis of Taiwan’s “return” to the Republic of China (ROC) after World War II was not only incorrect, but also dangerous because his rhetoric was exactly the same as that of Beijing, pro-independence advocates said yesterday.

“[Ma’s interpretation] fits right in with the ‘one China’ framework, which would be interpreted by the international community as saying Taiwan is part of China because hardly anyone would recognize the China in ‘one China’ framework as referring to the ROC,” Taiwan Society President Chang Yen-hsien (張炎憲), a former president of the Academia Historica, told a press conference.