The Presidential Office repeated its call yesterday for Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
After the KMT unveiled Lien's plan to visit China yesterday, Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General James Huang (黃志芳) reiterated Chen's willingness to talk to Lien.
Meanwhile, another Presidential Office official said the government might authorize Lien's visit. However, in the interest of national unity between the ruling and opposition parties, the president hopes that Lien will consult with the government on issues related to national sovereignty before his trip, the official said.
The KMT, riled by Chen's comments about Lien's trip on Saturday, said the president lacked sincerity and rejected the offer of a meeting. Huang stressed that Chen is sincere in his offer.
"If Lien agrees to meet with the president, the Presidential Office will cooperate with the KMT in arranging technical details of the talks," Huang said.
Upon his return to Taipei on Saturday after attending Pope John Paul II's funeral, Chen warned Lien not to play along with Beijing's manipulations.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus whip Lai Ching-te (
"Meetings between political leaders are the best way to reach consensus," Lai said. "But the KMT is afraid Lien will not be able to see Hu Jintao (
also see story:
KMT: Lien's trip will be `open'
BAVI: Taipei, New Taipei City, Taoyuan and others announced work and class closures today, with the storm expected to affect Taiwan through tomorrow The outer rain bands of Typhoon Bavi would begin affecting Taiwan today, with its storm circle reaching land this evening and its level-10 wind radius covering all of northern Taiwan by noon tomorrow, an official said yesterday. The Central Weather Administration (CWA) issued a sea warning for the storm at 2:30pm yesterday, advising of heightened danger in eastern areas and in the Bashi Channel south of Taiwan. Typhoon Bavi is expected to bring strong winds, extremely heavy rainfall and rough seas to Taiwan today and tomorrow, with the heaviest rain forecast for mountainous areas and sustained winds of up to 12 on
Typhoon Bavi was expected to have its strongest impact on Taiwan from last night through daytime today, with its storm circle forecast to reach areas from New Taipei City’s northeast coast to Yilan and Hualien counties early today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 6pm yesterday, the center of the typhoon was about 590km east of Taiwan’s southernmost tip at Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), moving northwest at 26kph, the CWA said. The storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 155kph near its center, with gusts reaching 191kph. It had a radius of 380km. A land warning, issued at 5:30am yesterday, remains in
Typhoon Bavi lashed Taiwan yesterday, injuring 113 people, prompting the evacuation of 14,605 residents and knocking out power in 234,481 households, the government said. Most of the injuries were due to people falling off motorcycles or bicycles due to strong winds and slippery roads, and others occurred during the typhoon preparations, Central Emergency Operations Center (CEOC) data as of 8pm yesterday showed. No fatalities or severe injuries had been reported as of press time last night. Due to flooding and landslide risks, 14,605 people had been evacuated nationwide, led by 5,182 people in Hualien County, 2,096 in Taichung, 1,700 in New Taipei,
APPLICATIONS: The robots are capable of disaster and firefighting response, autonomous navigation, swarm operations as well as underground tunnel inspections, the ministry said The Ministry of Economic Affairs is working with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and industry partners to create a homegrown program to develop four-legged robots to tap into the US$4 billion global robot dog market. The initiative aims to leverage Taiwan’s strengths in information and communications technology, semiconductors and precision machinery to build indigenous technologies and a non-China supply chain, the ministry said. Technology is evolving from robotic arms to wheeled, quadruped and humanoid robots with autonomous mobility capabilities, it said. Driven by rapid advancements in generative artificial intelligence (AI), visual recognition, sensors and high-performance computing, robots are now capable of
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