President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) yesterday acknowledged his concerns about a split in the pan-blue camp over People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong’s (宋楚瑜) participation in the presidential election, adding that negotiations with Soong and the PFP would continue.
In an interview on CTV’s political TV show Report to the Voters, Ma, seeking re-election in January as the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential candidate, discussed Soong’s possible presidential bid with host Jaw Shao-kang (趙少康) and said the KMT was concerned about the possible impact of Soong running for the presidency because the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and its candidate, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), could benefit from a split in the pan-blue camp.
“We are continuing our discussions with the PFP ... We should look at the big picture and avoid a spat between allies affecting the outcome of the election,” Ma said.
Soong declared his intention to join the presidential election in May and started a petition last month. He has previously said he would not join the race unless he collected 1 million signatures for his presidential petition, but later said he would join the presidential election if the number of signatures surpassed the legal threshold of 257,695.
Soong’s presidential bid has caused great concern in the KMT, especially because Ma has been polling neck-and-neck with the DPP’s Tsai.
Soong has been ignoring the KMT’s call for pan-blue unity and he said earlier this week that his petition had passed the legal threshold and he promised to make his candidacy official by sending the first batch of petitions to the Central Election Commission on Tuesday.
PFP spokesman Wu Kun-yu (吳崑玉) yesterday shrugged off Ma’s concerns, saying Soong wanted to participate in the presidential election because he wanted to respond to the public’s expectations.
“Chairman Soong is concerned about the nation’s future and he is looking at the big picture,” Wu said.
‘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
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
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
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification