TPP's Ko presses Lai to clarify Taiwan independence stance

Taipei, Dec. 16 (CNA) Taiwan People's Party (TPP) presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Saturday reiterated calls for his campaign rival Lai Ching-te (賴清德) of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to make clear how he intends to push forward Taiwan independence in the face of opposition from the United States.

At the TPP's first large-scale campaign rally in Tainan, Ko told thousands of people who came out in support of him that he had been asking Lai, the DPP's presidential candidate, this question on a daily basis.

But Lai, a self-described "practical political worker for Taiwan independence," has yet to provide an answer, Ko said.

Ko said that Lai seemed to have chosen to remain silent on a cause he had long championed once it encountered opposition from the U.S.

Lai used to thrive on support for Taiwan independence, but he appeared to have distanced himself from the issue, Ko said.

Quoting Lai, who has previously said, "Taiwan is already a sovereign country whose name is the Republic of China, there is no need for it to declare independence," Ko asked the former Tainan mayor to clarify when Taiwan attained statehood.

If Taiwan had already obtained statehood, "What were you [Lai] advocating for during all those years?" Ko asked.

"Where has your ideal gone? I hope that you say loudly and clearly how you intend to push forward Taiwan independence. The whole country awaits your answer," Ko said.

The former Taipei mayor also criticized the DPP's energy policy and its former direction of transforming Taiwan into a "nuclear-free homeland" by 2025 -- a goal enshrined by DPP lawmakers in the Electricity Act in 2017, but later abolished after a referendum asking the public whether they supported the total abolition of nuclear energy before 2025 failed to pass.

He said that Tainan is the nexus of historical events that have shaped Taiwan over the past 400 years, but in recent years it seems to have been tainted by corruption.

One such example was the vote-buying charge against DPP Tainan City Council Speaker Chiu Li-li (邱莉莉), over which Lai has remained mostly silent, Ko said.

However, when former Kuomintang (KMT) Tainan City Council Speaker Lee Chuan-chiao (李全教) was being probed for vote-buying, Lai, then the Tainan mayor, refused to attend Tainan City Council sessions for more than 200 days, Ko said, panning Lai for adopting a "double standard."

He called on his supporters to "start a revolution from your living rooms" by lobbying the seniors in their families to come out and vote for him on Jan. 13 and give Taiwanese politics an opportunity to turn over a new leaf after Taiwan has seen so little progress in the past three decades of governance by the KMT and the DPP.

If elected, he would refrain from the "profligate" spending by the DPP administration and never leave Taiwan's future generations indebted, Ko said.

He was referring to his ability to pay off NT$57 billion in debt owed by the Taipei City government to its residents during his two terms as Taipei mayor from 2014 to 2022, the largest amount of government debt repayment by any mayor or magistrate during that period, according to the National Audit Office.