The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday said it would stop participating in interparty negotiations convened to resolve the political stalemate over the cross-strait service trade agreement because the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) has repeatedly failed to respect the wishes of the public.
“We will stop attending the negotiations because the two sides remain oceans apart,” DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) told a press conference yesterday after the breakdown of the fourth round of interparty negotiations, convened by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) at his residence.
The negotiations were held to try to work out a solution to dealing with the agreement awaiting review by the legislature, hoping to put an end to the Sunflower student movement that has occupied the legislative floor since Tuesday last week.
The DPP has the same demands as the protesters, that the pact not be reviewed by the legislature until a legislative monitoring mechanism has been established, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.
The KMT caucus insists that the mechanism and the review of the pact should be separate issues. It also insists that the review must be presided over by Wang and that the DPP agree not to filibuster the review process.
“What we have is the KMT playing a two-handed strategy as President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) still refuses to answer the students’ demands directly,” Ker said.
While Wang has proposed initiating his own proposal to solve the conflict if the DPP and the KMT fail to agree, Ker said Wang’s proposal would be meaningless.
“The people are asking Ma for a positive response. The controversy will not end without Ma’s proposal,” Ker added.
Ker warned Ma that the trade pact controversy could become a “political nuclear bomb” that forces Ma’s early exit if the president fails to handle it carefully and refuses to listen to the public’s voice.
The student movement has not been losing steam, but gathering momentum since the bloody crackdown on the protesters at the Executive Yuan compound on Monday morning, Ker said.
“It shows the collective anxiety of Taiwanese toward the Ma administration’s pro-China position and its poor governance, and that the violation of democratic principles and constitutionalism has reached boiling point,” he said.
Wang said yesterday that he would keep working to bring the two sides together to find a consensus.
“At this critical moment for the country, all sides have to address the stalemate and work together to find a solution and regain the public’s trust,” Wang said.
Additional reporting by CNA
DAREDEVIL: Honnold said it had always been a dream of his to climb Taipei 101, while a Netflix producer said the skyscraper was ‘a real icon of this country’ US climber Alex Honnold yesterday took on Taiwan’s tallest building, becoming the first person to scale Taipei 101 without a rope, harness or safety net. Hundreds of spectators gathered at the base of the 101-story skyscraper to watch Honnold, 40, embark on his daredevil feat, which was also broadcast live on Netflix. Dressed in a red T-shirt and yellow custom-made climbing shoes, Honnold swiftly moved up the southeast face of the glass and steel building. At one point, he stepped onto a platform midway up to wave down at fans and onlookers who were taking photos. People watching from inside
A Vietnamese migrant worker yesterday won NT$12 million (US$379,627) on a Lunar New Year scratch card in Kaohsiung as part of Taiwan Lottery Co’s (台灣彩券) “NT$12 Million Grand Fortune” (1200萬大吉利) game. The man was the first top-prize winner of the new game launched on Jan. 6 to mark the Lunar New Year. Three Vietnamese migrant workers visited a Taiwan Lottery shop on Xinyue Street in Kaohsiung’s Gangshan District (崗山), a store representative said. The player bought multiple tickets and, after winning nothing, held the final lottery ticket in one hand and rubbed the store’s statue of the Maitreya Buddha’s belly with the other,
‘NATO-PLUS’: ‘Our strategic partners in the Indo-Pacific are facing increasing aggression by the Chinese Communist Party,’ US Representative Rob Wittman said The US House of Representatives on Monday released its version of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes US$1.15 billion to support security cooperation with Taiwan. The omnibus act, covering US$1.2 trillion of spending, allocates US$1 billion for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative, as well as US$150 million for the replacement of defense articles and reimbursement of defense services provided to Taiwan. The fund allocations were based on the US National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2026 that was passed by the US Congress last month and authorized up to US$1 billion to the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in support of the
‘COMMITTED TO DETERRENCE’: Washington would stand by its allies, but it can only help as much as countries help themselves, Raymond Greene said The US is committed to deterrence in the first island chain, but it should not bear the burden alone, as “freedom is not free,” American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said in a speech at the Institute for National Defense and Security Research’s “Strengthening Resilience: Defense as the Engine of Development” seminar in Taipei yesterday. In the speech, titled “Investing Together and a Secure and Prosperous Future,” Greene highlighted the contributions of US President Donald Trump’s administration to Taiwan’s defense efforts, including the establishment of supply chains for drones and autonomous systems, offers of security assistance and the expansion of
RSS