The Legislative Yuan erupted into chaos yesterday, with legislators headbutting and choking each other before a vote was finally held to pass a resolution supporting the nation's World Health Organization observership bid.
Independent legislator Chu Hsing-yu (
Later, the feisty lawmaker took two breathalyzer tests to prove his sobriety after his sparring partner claimed he'd been drinking.
The legislative caucases originally had an understanding to pass the motion before the World Health Assembly started this year, but because of Chu's grudge against the DPP, a result of its opposition to Chu's bill to cancel bonuses for tax investigators, Chu boycotted the motion from the DPP caucus yesterday.
Cable TV stations showed Chu -- who has a reputation for unruly behavior -- approach Lai and begin bumping his shoulder against Lai's as colleagues tried to separate them.
The stocky Chu grabbed Lai by his jacket collar, tying to wrestle him down on a desk. Chu then tried to headbutt Lai and eventually jabbed him in the stomach, before lawmakers pulled them apart.
Lai said he wasn't hurt, and that he'd "smelled alcohol very clearly when he [Chu] was close."
"Legislators should take an alcohol test before meetings," he joked. "Otherwise this will influence the country no less than drunk driving affects traffic."
Chu denied he'd drunk any alcohol. He called a traffic policeman into the legislature and took two breathalyzer tests in front of the TV cameras.
"Both times it was zero," Chu said as he showed off the slips of paper with the test results.
After the fight, the motion underwent an anonymous vote, and the majority of legislators agreed to pass the motion. But Chu again demanded further negotiations.
The sitting was forced to break, and several DPP legislators tried to placate Chu.
The motion then went through another vote after the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) demanded an open vote, and it finally passed with only one vote against it. Chu voted in favor of the motion.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS