The DPP yesterday complained that PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) has dominated KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) in the KMT-PFP decision-making mechanism during the pan-blue alliance's move to block the legislature from confirming the appointment of grand justice nominees.
"The KMT-PFP joint decision-making platform has leaned towards Soong in an attempt to oppose the DPP's administration. Lien has basically become muted and followed whatever Soong says," DPP Vice Secretary General Lee Ching-yung (李進勇) said yesterday.
The ruling and opposition parties yesterday argued in the Legislative Yuan over when to confirm the appointment of the 15 grand justice nominees which President Chen Shui-bian (
While the government wants a swift confirmation by the end of June, the opposition parties insist on a delay in making the decision until September.
Lee said the way Soong has talked Lien into complying with the decision to postpone the appointment date showed that the joint Lien-Soong presidential ticket has virtually turned into a Soong-Lien ticket, with Soong taking the lead and Lien being marginalized.
This has put the KMT Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) in an awkward position as Wang had earlier said the Legislature is authorized to proceed with the confirmation in June, Lee said.
"It has always been Soong's tactic to stand against the DPP government in order to gain an edge for himself in the next presidential election," Lee said.
Furthermore, Lee said, when KMT Vice Chairman Vincent Siew decided to become an economic adviser to the president, the PFP launched malicious attacks on Siew, criticizing Siew's loyalty to the KMT.
The attacks, which were intended to force Siew to remain loyal to Lien, had made Siew hesitant to take up more responsibilities to help President Chen reverse the economic slump.
"Soong has taken an aggressive role in influencing Lien. This sent a clear message to Lien that his PFP counterpart has major leverage in the KMT-PFP alliance and that the KMT is losing its leading position," Lee noted.
A similar situation occurred with the supplementary election of the Hualien County commissioner.
The election is being held following the death of the incumbent Chang Fu-hsing (
Soong announced that PFP legislator Fu Kun-chi (
"The KMT knows clearly that whatever candidate it proposes, it has to meet with Soong's approval for a final decision. It makes perfect sense that Soong's early announcement of a candidate increases his bargaining power with the KMT," Lee said.
Meanwhile, DPP Vice Secretary General yesterday urged China to stop oppressing Taiwan's participation in any of the international communities.
A series of attacks that China has launched towards Taiwan, including blocking Taiwan from obtaining observer status at the World Health Assembly, pressuring the World Health Organization's secretariat to denigrate Taiwan's status and sending spy vessels into the Taiwan Strait on Tuesday, were just China's way of switching the focus from its poor management of the SARS outbreak, he said.
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
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
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