Taipei, Jan. 10 (CNA) With only two days remaining until the presidential election, the three candidates weighed in on different issues as they continued campaigning around Taiwan Wednesday.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce’s announcement on Tuesday that it is mulling suspending preferential tariffs on eligible products under the cross-strait Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement is politically motivated economic coercion by Beijing as Taiwanese people prepare to go to the polls, said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Lai Ching-te (賴清德) in response to reporters’ requests for a comment.
This highlights that Taiwan’s efforts to diversify its export markets over the past few years is a path along which it must continue, said Lai, Taiwan’s incumbent vice president.
Also on Wednesday, the Australian daily newspaper The Australian published an article on Lai titled “Taiwan peace ‘through strength’.”
In the piece, Lai was asked by the newspaper to respond to former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) recent comments that Taiwan “could never fight the mainland” because China is “too large,” and that Taipei needed to “use non-military means to reduce tensions.”
“Of course we must have ideals when it comes to peace, but we should not have delusions or fantasies,” Lai was quoted as saying.
“Accepting China’s ‘One China Principle’ — that is not true peace. Without sovereignty, peace would be like what they have in Hong Kong. That is not true peace.”
“We are trying to achieve peace through strength. We are not trying to depend on the goodwill of an aggressor – that is not credible,” Lai was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, Kuomintang (KMT) presidential nominee Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜) joined calls by several KMT politicians for the DPP administration to declassify the procurement contract for the Medigen vaccine ahead of Saturday’s presidential and legislative elections.
The Medigen vaccine has been a major source of contention used by the KMT and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) against the DPP since the televised presidential platform presentations and debate in December.
The opposition parties have accused the DPP of improperly benefiting Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when Taiwan could not acquire enough vaccines, allowing Medigen to receive Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) through immunobridging in place of Phase 3 testing.
They have also suggested, DPP members could have shares in the company or have benefited financially from such favorable treatment.
Lai has said he supports declassifying the contract, but Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) noted Tuesday during an extraordinary section of the legislature that the contractual terms stipulate the document must remain classified for five years, and premature declassification can only be done with the consent of Medigen.
Also on Wednesday, TPP presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said election advertisements released by the DPP and KMT seemed to concentrate their attacks on him, which shows that he is the best candidate.
In an open letter to party members on Monday, the TPP chairman also accused the KMT of using subterfuge to hurt his election prospects.
The KMT used a similar tactic in the 2000 election against former Taiwan Province Governor James Soong (宋楚瑜), which the outcome of that election proved to be false, Ko wrote, asking people not to fall for the KMT’s trick again.
