Who Was (and Wasn't) at Taiwan's National Day Parade?

TaiwanPlus News

Former President Ma Ying-jeou has shunned National Day celebrations for the second year in a row, while his predecessor Chen Shui-bian made a surprise appearance.

Transcript

00:00Let's get more now from Rick who's in Taipei for us. Rick, a very significant

00:05day for Taiwan, much of the focus of course on Lai, but let's talk a bit about

00:10who wasn't there. Any notable absences?

00:16Well as you say many people in the region and in Taiwan carefully listening

00:21and analyzing Lai's comments, but there's one person who we know was not

00:26listening, at least not in person, and that's former president Ma Ying-jeou. He's

00:30from the opposition party the Kuomintang or the KMT and he said he would not be

00:35attending National Day celebrations over comments Lai made earlier this week.

00:40Lai said that in fact Taiwan or the Republic of China as it's also known is

00:45older than the People's Republic of China and could therefore be considered

00:49the motherland. This is the second year in a row that Ma has boycotted National

00:55Day celebrations, but another former president, a man named Chen Shui-bian, was

01:00in attendance and this is the first time he's been at the National Day

01:04celebrations since he was in office. Chen is an interesting character in Taiwan

01:09politics. He's actually out on parole, he was convicted of money laundering

01:13whilst in office and he's also a big advocate for Taiwan independence. So two

01:19former presidents on opposite ends of the political spectrum making their

01:24opinions on Lai known with their attendance. Lai of course in his speech

01:29pushing a message of unity not only across the strait to China but also

01:34across the political divide here in Taiwan.

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