Rumors that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) wants Legislative Yuan speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to be his running mate in next year's presidential election have triggered a great deal of discussion both inside and out of the legislature.
A Chinese-language newspaper reported on Wednesday that Chen had picked Wang to be his running mate and that the two men had met earlier this month to discuss the possibility.
In response to reporters' questions both on Wednesday and yesterday, Wang said he had met with Chen on April 2 and April 16, but not to discuss the election.
Wang said they discussed the Cabinet's NT$50 billion job-creation program, the budget for the Navy's procurement of Kidd-class destroyers and the nomination of justices for the Council of Grand Justices.
"Honestly, our meeting had nothing to do with any elections. I swear," Wang said.
"We never mentioned anything about the election," he said.
Wang said that it was normal for the president to meet with lawmakers and that Chen often does so. In addition, he said, it is also important and necessary for the president to occasionally consult with lawmakers on important issues affecting the country.
Asked whether the rumors bother him, Wang said he did not care since the story was not true.
"I am still the vice chairman of KMT and I will support the presidential candidate of my party," he said.
Many lawmakers were eager to comment on the rumors yesterday.
KMT Legislator Apollo Chen (
He said that as speaker of the legislator, Wang possesses real political power and the affection of fellow politicians. However, he added, if Wang were to become vice president, the power and affection would no longer exist since under the Constitution the job is a position without real power.
"Wang is a smart guy. He under-stands that he will lose his job as the speaker if he decides to join the DPP's campaign. In addition, there have been no indications so far that he will leave either his job or the KMT," Apollo Chen said.
"As a result, I will never believe such a rumor. Even it is not a rumor, I still believe that Wang will not accept such an invitation," he said.
PFP Legislator Pang Chien-kuo (
Pang also said Wang would not sacrifice his credibility and affection within the KMT to join the DPP's presidential campaign.
"But remember, President Chen and PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) used to attack each other politically from time to time. However, they still met to discuss the possibilities of working together before the last election. I mean, it happened before and it will happen again. That's politics," Pang said.
TSU Legislator Cheng Chen-lung (
"The only end goal is to win and there is nothing wrong if the president invites Wang to be his partner, since Wang has good relationships with both the pan-blue and pan-green camps," Cheng said.
"However, if Wang wants to win our support, he will have to recognize himself as a Taiwanese and affirm the pan-green camp's policies," Cheng said.
TSU legislative caucus leader Chen Chien-ming (
"Everybody knows that the vice-president's position is not an important one with real political power. As a result, the pan-blue camp needs to spread rumors like this one to create an image that their candidate (for the job) is still seeking it even though they are over qualified," Chen Chien-ming said.
"The fact is the DPP will not decide on its vice-presidential candidate so early. But no matter what, President Chen's final decision will be respected," he said.
Meanwhile, when approached by reporters yesterday afternoon, DPP Lawmaker Chang Ching-fang (
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater