DPP head: party to be ‘high quality opposition’

Tsai made the comments in a speech at a fund-raiser in the northern California city where she arrived earlier the same day on the last leg of her two-week visit to the United States.

Although the people of Taiwan’s trust in the DPP is relatively low at this point, Tsai said, the party will strive to use its advantage over the ruling Kuomintang (KMT) on social and sovereignty issues “to strengthen the people’s identification with the party.”

Tsai said she expects the DPP to act as a “high quality opposition” party by not ceaselessly criticizing the KMT and instead engaging in constructive competition with the ruling party and reducing inter-party confrontation to allow the 23 million people of Taiwan to live together in harmony.

She added, however, that if the KMT triggers public dissatisfaction by pushing Taiwan too close to China, the DPP does not rule out the option of mobilizing citizens to take to the streets to protest such a policy.

After her brief visit in San Jose, Tsai boarded a flight back to Taiwan in the early hours of Monday morning. She is scheduled to arrive back in Taiwan on Tuesday.

During her trip to the United States, the DPP head visited New York, Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles. While in the U.S. capital, she met with U.S. officials and representatives of the Republican and Democratic Parties, as well as visited Capitol Hill and spoke at the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation.

She also attended various party fund-raising activities in the various cities she visited.

Tsai assumed the chairmanship of the pro-independence DPP on May 20 of this year, becoming the first woman to head a major political party in Taiwan’s history.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Terms

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos
 Respond to this email