The leaders of Taiwan's two major opposition parties, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), yesterday formally announced their joint bid to team up on a single presidential ticket for next March's presidential election.
Lien will lead the KMT-PFP alliance's joint ticket as the presidential candidate with Soong, his former rival, as his running mate.
Accompanied by their wives, Lien and Soong made the announcement of their joint ticket at a press conference held following the first meeting of the alliance's 26-member campaign committee. The conference was held at the KMT-own Pate Building -- the alliance's designated campaign headquarters.
"For the sake of salvaging Taiwan from continuous downgrading, we have decided to pair up for the 2004 presidential election and challenge the decline brought about by the incompetent DPP administration," Soong said.
Working to allay the public's doubts, Soong stressed at the press conference that the KMT-PFP partnership was not of divvying up the spoil of offices nor was it a restoration of old order that was characterizes by the practice of "black-gold" politics.
"The PFP has no `black-gold' issues and the KMT itself has ditched and come out from under the shadow of such practices as well," Soong said.
He also claimed that the DPP administration was now the breeding ground of "black-gold" politics.
Soong lambasted President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) as an incompetent who doesn't know how to govern effectively but only knows how to smear others.
Lien said that, under the DPP and Chen's leadership, Taiwan has become a place where where unemployment rate is high, public order is deteriorating, the gap between rich and poor has widened and democracy is going backward.
Lien also took the opportunity to counter critics who have claimed that the joint-ticket is a last gasp by elderly political has-beens.
"Leadership is not about age but about wisdom and experience," Lien, who is 67, said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique