The PFP caucus dined with KMT Chairman Lien Chan (
The dinner, held at the Hsin Yi Club, marked the first time the PFP has extended such an invitation to Lien since the two parties announced their plan three months ago to cooperate in next year's presidential election.
"In view of recent rumors designed to drive a wedge between the PFP and the KMT, the PFP caucus decided to host a dinner for Lien in order to demonstrate the PFP's determination and sincerity in forming the alliance with the KMT," PFP spokesman Huang Yih-jiau (黃義交) said.
Over the past few days, the KMT-PFP alliance has faced accusations that Lien is merely a figurehead, while PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) plays the leading role in the alliance.
Soong's recent media exposure has prompted concerns from some KMT legislators that Soong is playing too great a role in blue-camp decision-making, while Lien has become relatively invisible.
"The dinner was also held in part to show our respect for Lien," Huang said, adding that the accusations against Soong were an attempt to sow discord between the KMT and PFP chairmen.
Responding to the Lien-Soong meet yesterday, DPP Deputy Secretary-General Lee Ying-yuan (李應元) said he didn't know whether the two would strike any secret deals, but added the pair's tradition of secret politics is "problematic" and violates democratic principles.
"This kind of secret politics between Lien and Soong is like abdication in the ancient Chinese empire, as Lien is seemingly passing the crown to his successor Soong," Lee said.
In addition to last night's dinner, the KMT invited both Soong and New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (
"Both Soong and Yok are invited in order to strengthen communication among the pan-blue alliance as well as cooperation among these cities and counties," said Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
Ma, also a KMT vice chairman, was the one who proposed inviting other pan-blue leaders to the Hsinchu meeting.
KMT Secretary-General Lin Feng-cheng (
Lin added that the KMT-PFP alliance would soon announce its candidate for Hualien County commissioner.
The post was left vacant by KMT incumbent Chang Fu-hsiung (
"We are in the process of discussing the choice of candidate with the PFP," Lin said. "We will announce our joint nominee no later than June 22."
The Hualien County by-election is seen as a test of the alliance's strength in the run-up to the March presidential election.
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