The media has reported that KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
Rumors of the conditions cementing the joint ticket have circulated ever since it was first announced. In a sense, it's old news. But it now appears that the rumors of the secret pact are true, although Lien and Soong deny the existence of a secret agreement.
PFP Spokesman Hwang Yih-jiau (
Politics has always been about the allotment of power, and there is nothing terribly wrong about parties negotiating the most beneficial conditions for cooperation in an election campaign. But if the negotiations for a joint ticket involves closed-doors assignations and bartering of key political posts, then this is something the public should monitor carefully.
The alleged agreement between the KMT and the PFP to give Soong the premiership if he is elected vice president could set back the nation's political development back by seven years.
In 1996, when Lien was premier, but had just been elected vice president, the KMT decided to continue his premiership in order to prevent the Legislative Yuan from blocking his reappointment. The DPP strongly objected to Lien doing double duty. Then DPP legislator Chang Chun-hsiung (
According to the council's Interpretation No. 419, the Constitution does not actually ban a vice president from serving concurrently as premier. However, the justices said that it seemed inappropriate for a vice president to do so, because the vice president and the premier have separate duties. In the wake of the justices' decision, Lien resigned as premier on August 31, 1997.
Since President Chen Shui-bian (
No one knows whether the Lien-Soong ticket will win next year's election. But the people shouldn't have to wait until next March to find out if the reported secret deal was indeed made.
The joint ticket has already created waves and distrust among the public -- since it is evidence that both parties are willing to compromise what little integrity they have for the chance to regain power. If they are willing to run roughshod over the Constitution in order to win the election, who knows what else they will be willing to do. If either Lien or Soong were smart, they would immediately rule out the possibility of Soong double-dipping if elected ... at least as far as jobs are concerned.
A series of strong earthquakes in Hualien County not only caused severe damage in Taiwan, but also revealed that China’s power has permeated everywhere. A Taiwanese woman posted on the Internet that she found clips of the earthquake — which were recorded by the security camera in her home — on the Chinese social media platform Xiaohongshu. It is spine-chilling that the problem might be because the security camera was manufactured in China. China has widely collected information, infringed upon public privacy and raised information security threats through various social media platforms, as well as telecommunication and security equipment. Several former TikTok employees revealed
For the incoming Administration of President-elect William Lai (賴清德), successfully deterring a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) attack or invasion of democratic Taiwan over his four-year term would be a clear victory. But it could also be a curse, because during those four years the CCP’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) will grow far stronger. As such, increased vigilance in Washington and Taipei will be needed to ensure that already multiplying CCP threat trends don’t overwhelm Taiwan, the United States, and their democratic allies. One CCP attempt to overwhelm was announced on April 19, 2024, namely that the PLA had erred in combining major missions
The Constitutional Court on Tuesday last week held a debate over the constitutionality of the death penalty. The issue of the retention or abolition of the death penalty often involves the conceptual aspects of social values and even religious philosophies. As it is written in The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay, the government’s policy is often a choice between the lesser of two evils or the greater of two goods, and it is impossible to be perfect. Today’s controversy over the retention or abolition of the death penalty can be viewed in the same way. UNACCEPTABLE Viewing the
At the same time as more than 30 military aircraft were detected near Taiwan — one of the highest daily incursions this year — with some flying as close as 37 nautical miles (69kms) from the northern city of Keelung, China announced a limited and selected relaxation of restrictions on Taiwanese agricultural exports and tourism, upon receiving a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) delegation led by KMT legislative caucus whip Fu Kun-chi (傅崑萁). This demonstrates the two-faced gimmick of China’s “united front” strategy. Despite the strongest earthquake to hit the nation in 25 years striking Hualien on April 3, which caused