Alexa
  • Directory of Taiwan

Tsai calls on DPP to resist China pressure

  128
Tsai calls on DPP to resist China pressure

Tsai calls on DPP to resist China pressure

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – In an open letter on the occasion of the Democratic Progressive Party’s 30th anniversary, President Tsai Ing-wen promised to insist on reform and called on the party to resist China in seeking to expand Taiwan’s international relations.
The DPP, which Tsai chairs, canceled all anniversary celebrations on September 28 due to Typhoon Megi.
After the DPP was founded in 1986, its main objective was to push for democratic politics, and it succeeded, Tsai wrote in the letter posted on her Facebook page.
“Building on the democratic base, we will build a prosperous, safe and just society for the Taiwanese,” she wrote.
Tsai acknowledged it would not be easy. Over the past few months, one issue after the other came to the surface. “I understand everybody’s worries, but I’m asking everybody to believe that the DPP will not abandon its ideals in the face of pressure,” she wrote.
The president said she would lead the country like she had led the party to surge again in difficult times after its 2008 electoral defeats, and solve the country’s problems one by one.
“There are some values that we will insist on keeping,” the president wrote. “We must resist China’s pressure and develop relations with other countries. We must leave our overdependence on China and establish healthy, normal economic relations.”
Tsai also wrote that it would be difficult to increase safeguards for the protection of workers’ rights while avoiding harming small and medium enterprises.
“As Taiwan finds itself in a difficult situation, the people are hoping for strong leadership,” Tsai said, adding that in order to turn reform into a success, decision-making would have to be even more transparent and faster.
While some protests had been planned against the DPP on its 30th anniversary, Tsai said that it was this kind of free society that the party had been seeking during its three decades. “Our attitude will not change because we have become the ruling party. That is the spirit of the DPP.”