Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) is still hoping for a change of heart from opposition leaders on the upcoming national affairs conference on economics and trade, Executive Yuan spokesperson Sun Lih-chyun (孫立群) said yesterday.
The Executive Yuan has tried to contact the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) over possible meetings between Jiang and DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝), to persuade them to attend the conference.
“We have the greatest sincerity in wanting to have DPP and TSU members present because the issues up for discussion at the conference are of concern to the future of Taiwan’s economic development,” Sun said.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
The DPP and the TSU have already turned down invitations to participate in the conference scheduled to take place in Taipei from July 26 to July 28.
DPP Secretary-General Joseph Wu (吳釗燮) yesterday said in Greater Taichung that Executive Yuan Secretary-General Lee Shu-chuan (李四川) relayed the premier’s invitation in a telephone call, before indirectly reaffirming the party’s boycott of the conference.
“The DPP Central Standing Committee’s resolution to not attend the conference remains unchanged,” Wu said on the sidelines of a DPP’s policy meeting.
Adding that the conference would take place after the extra legislative session, which begins on Friday, Wu said major issues such as the cross-strait service trade agreement and the free economic pilot zones (FEPZ) might already be settled in the legislature by the time the meeting begins, making the conference meaningless.
Wu said President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration is “making every opportunity of meeting with the DPP a publicity stunt” by leaking the information to the media before initiating contact.
“This time was no different. That was why we think it was not a sincere invitation,” Wu said.
The TSU said that it had declined an invitation from the Executive Yuan and would not send delegates to the conference.
The Ma administration should have suspended the FEPZ project and legislative screening of the service trade pact until a consensus is reached in the national affairs conference for economics and trade, TSU Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) said.
Ma is playing a two-handed strategy by organizing the conference to listen to public opinions, while ordering the KMT caucus to push through his agenda at all costs, Lin added.
Meanwhile, the People First Party issued a statement reiterating its position that it would not send anyone to the conference because it did not expect that the main issues confronting Taiwan could be resolved there.
The issues are conflicts between political parties and generations, of ethics, the rich and the poor, the north and the south, and management and employees, “all of political nature,” FPF spokesperson Wu Koon-yu (吳昆玉) said.
Wu Koon-yu said that the government would not be able to rebuild public confidence in its capability to address all the issues by holding the conference.
According to the Executive Yuan, the purpose of the conference is to discuss strategies to upgrade industrial development, assist young people to grasp opportunities of globalization, buffer negative effects of globalization on inequalities, boost the development of local industries and social enterprises, develop cross-strait relations, and take part in international economic integration.
‘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
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
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
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