With its eye on the December mayoral and county commissioners' elections and in a sign of possible cooperation between the KMT and the PFP against the ruling DPP, the KMT yesterday stated its intention to propose revisions to the Law on Local Government Systems (
Some KMT members, however, expressed opposition to such a proposal.
"If a candidate and his running mate, who belong to different parties, win the election, how will they make appointments fairly according to party representation? What if they disagree with each other? It will surely cause chaos," lawmaker Chen Horng-chi (
Other KMT members, however, disagreed with Chen, saying that the details of further cooperation were negotiable.
"The KMT and the PFP are associated parties. There is plenty of room for electoral cooperation to achieve victory," KMT caucus whip Cheng Yuan-chin (
Echoing Cheng's view, lawmaker Liao Fung-te (
Both PFP spokesman Hwang Yih-jiau (
The KMT, in addition, is likely to propose that electoral victory in the mayoral and commissioner's races depended on winning an absolute majority (
DPP members, however, said the opposition alliance's move was an act of political manipulation, taking advantage of their majority of legislative seats to revise laws any way they wanted to.
"It's their short-term strategy [to cooperate with each other] since they are unlikely to merge as a party in the longer term," DPP legislator Shen Fu-hsiung (
A secret meeting between KMT chairman Lien Chan (
"The party will compete fairly against other parties in accordance with the principles of party politics," Soong said on Sunday, adding that he met with Lien last Friday to express his thanks to the KMT for its decision not to seek reconsideration of a prosecutor's decision not to indict him in the Chung Hsing bills finance case (
Soong had, during the presidential election, faced charges that he embezzled roughly NT$360 million of the KMT's funds.
A subsidiary of a Hong Kong-based company that has lost control of two critical ports on the Panama Canal said it is seeking US$2 billion of compensation in damages from Panama over its “illegal” takeover of the ports. Panama Ports Co, a unit of Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison Holdings (長江和記實業), on Friday said in a statement that it is demanding the sum under international arbitration proceedings that it had already started. The Panamanian government last week seized control of the Balboa and Cristobal ports on each end of the Panama Canal, after the country’s Supreme Court declared earlier that a concession allowing
DETERRENCE: With 1,000 indigenous Hsiung Feng II and III missiles and 400 Harpoon missiles, the nation would boast the highest anti-ship missile density in the world With Taiwan wrapping up mass production of Hsiung Feng II and III missiles by December and an influx of Harpoon missiles from the US, Taiwan would have the highest density of anti-ship missiles in the world, a source said yesterday. Taiwan is to wrap up mass production of the indigenous anti-ship missiles by the end of year, as the Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology has been meeting production targets ahead of schedule, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said. Combined with the 400 Harpoon anti-ship missiles Taiwan expects to receive from the US by 2028, the nation would have
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MISSION OF PEACE: The foreign minister urged Beijing to respect Taiwan’s existence as an independent nation, and work together to ensure peace and stability in the region Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) yesterday rejected Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi’s (王毅) comments about Taiwan, criticizing China as a “troublemaker” in the international community and a disruptor of cross-strait peace. Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of the Chinese National People’s Congress, Wang said that Taiwan has always been a territory of China and that it would be impossible for it to become its own country. The “return” of Taiwan to China was the natural outcome of the Chinese people’s resistance against Japan in World War II, and that any pursuit of independence was “doomed