Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) yesterday warned Beijing to keep its hands off the presidential election, one day after Shanghai authorities banned KMT supporters from campaigning in that city.
Lien told a campaign rally in Taipei that China's behavior in the run-up to the 1996 and 2000 presidential elections had aroused deep antipathy.
"I would like to ask the Chinese authorities not to interfere in Taiwan's election," he said.
He dismissed President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) allegation that the KMT has won favor from China and Taiwanese fugitives living there because the party is on their side.
Lien called on Chen not to manipulate anti-China sentiment by emphasizing Beijing's interference in the election.
"Chen should instead tell the people what he has done over the past four years," Lien said.
Zhang Mingqing (張銘清), a spokesman for the Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) of China's State Council, said yesterday that China-based Taiwanese businesspeople need to obtain official permission to organize campaign groups.
"The TAO is not the agency to authorize such activities ? So far, the government has not received any application to form campaign groups," he said, commenting on Shanghai's ban on a political meeting by supporters of the pan-blue camp.
Former justice minister Liao Cheng-hao (廖正豪) was one of the organizers of that meeting.
Meanwhile, Cabinet Spokesman Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) criticized Lien and his running mate, People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), yesterday for sending Liao to solicit the votes of China-based Taiwanese.
According to Lin, Liao began his campaigning activities in China after the pan-blue camp obtained Beijing's consent. Lin said that the TAO had allowed the pan-blue camp to set up a supporters association near its office in Beijing and he urged China and the pan-blue camp to unveil their "secret deal."
"The TAO should explain why it did not prohibit the establishment of the supporters association and only voiced opposition to it after it opened," Lin said.
He said it appears Beijing is trying to influence the election by allowing Taiwanese fugitives to campaign for the pan-blue camp. China should repatriate these criminals to prove it is not trying affect the election, Lin said.
Zhang said China would neither comment nor interfere with the election, rebuffing criticism from Taipei that Beijing has plotted a number of events with Taiwanese businesspeople to influence the poll. He also denied that the TAO had any role in former Tuntex chairman Chen Yu-hao's (
Media reports have suggested the revelations were partly encouraged by mid-ranking TAO officials. Zhang stressed it was the Chen Yu-hao's idea to disclose the donation.
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS