National party congresses of the KMT and the PFP yesterday selected their chairmen, Lien Chan (連戰) and James Soong (宋楚瑜) respectively, as candidates for next March's presidential election.
The KMT-PFP alliance, forged by Lien and Soong last month, was also approved by the two parties' national party congresses, allowing the two parties to plan a joint ticket for the presidential race.
The KMT held its congress at the National Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall while the PFP's was at the Civil Service Development Institute.
In a speech delivered after getting the KMT congress' endorsement, Lien pledged that, if elected as president next year, he would make an immediate visit to China, dubbed by him as a "journey of peace."
"As long as it can enable peaceful relation for the both sides of the Strait, I am willing to shoulder this mission and responsibility for the sake of Taiwan's 23 million people and their offspring," Lien told his audience.
"I will push for immediate opening of a direct air link with China and sign several agreements with China so that Taiwan and mainland people can live in peace," Lien said.
He would also push for the proper implementation of Taiwan's "semi-presidential system" he said.
Citing the KMT's achievements made during its decades-long rule in Taiwan before losing power to the DPP in 2000, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Lien and Soong are slated to meet on Wednesday to further exchange views on its KMT-PFP Alliance Policy-making Committee, which will serve to thrash out issues related to cooperation between the two parties.
While the parties have agreed to file a joint ticket for the election there has yet been no agreement on who would lead it, though it is widely assumed that Lien will take this role.
During the KMT's national party congress, Ma was named by Lien and approved by the party con-gress, with applause, to be a party vice chairman in addition to the current five.
However, one of the five vice chairpersons, Chiang Chung-ling (
"[My resignation] has nothing to do with Ma's assumption of the vice chairmanship," Chiang said.
The KMT congress both approved Chiang's resignation and the selection of Legislative Yuan vice speaker Chiang Ping-kun (
Commenting on the opposition camp's nominations of Lien and Soong, DPP Deputy Secretary General Lee Ying-yuan (
The two parties had made no progress in the last three years in the issues of strengthening intra-party democracy and exterminating "black gold" politics, Lee said.
The congress decision had been long decided in advance by the party leaders and the congress process was a travesty of a democratic selection process, Lee said.
Lee said the semi-presidential system was really a scheme seeking to pave the way for Soong's serving as vice president and premier concurrently.
This was a form of booty-sharing already agreed upon by the blue-camp leaders, he said.
Also See Story:
Editorial: Lien Chan makes China an issue
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
COMPLIANCE: The SEF has helped more than 3,900 Chinese verify documents, indicating that most of those affected are willing to cooperate, the MAC said More than 3,100 spouses from China have submitted proof of renunciation of their Chinese household registration, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The National Immigration Agency has since April issued notices to spouses to submit proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration on or before June 30 or their Taiwanese household registration would be revoked. People having difficulties obtaining such a document can request an extension of the deadline or submit a written affidavit in lieu of it. The council said it would hold a briefing at 2:30pm on Friday at the immigration agency’s Taichung office in cooperation with the
The government-funded human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination is to be expanded to boys at junior-high school starting in September, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. The Taiwan Society of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, the Taiwan Association of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Taiwan Immunization Vision and Strategy, the Infectious Diseases Society of Taiwan, the Taiwan Head and Neck Society, the Formosa Cancer Foundation and the National Alliance of Presidents of Parents Associations held a joint news conference in Taipei yesterday to raise public awareness about the risks of HPV infection, regardless of gender. Invited to give an address, HPA Director-General Wu Chao-chun
RSS