DPP chair attends flag-raising ceremony in southern Taiwan

Taipei, Oct. 10 (CNA) In a rare show of her recognition of the Republic of China's legitimacy in Taiwan, opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairwoman Tai Ing-wen attended a national flag-raising ceremony in the southern city of Tainan Monday to celebrate the ROC's centennial Double Ten National Day.

At the start of the ceremony, Tsai joined other early risers in the singing of the ROC's national anthem, backed by recorded music.

Tsai's presence at a national flag-raising ceremony came two days after she unexpectedly declared at a presidential campaign rally in Kaohsiung that "Taiwan is the ROC, the ROC is Taiwan, the ROC government today is the government of Taiwan."

The statement was a departure from the DPP's previous stance that the ROC government was a non-native regime. Tsai is the DPP nominee for the 2012 presidential election.

Addressing the ROC's centennial National Day flag-raising ceremony, Tainan Mayor Lai Ching-te said it is usually a heartening moment to see the ROC national flag at an international competition or conference.

"We tend to be touched and even moved into tears whenever we see our national flag flying at international events," Lai said, adding that he believes the national flag-raising ceremony can help foster national unity.

Lai, a DPP stalwart, said he was pleased to see a national flag-raising ceremony being held in Tainan, a traditional DPP stronghold, with the attendance of people with different political persuasions.

"We hope the event will help promote inclusiveness and national development in the years ahead," he added.

(By Yang Su-jui and Sofia Wu)enditem /pc