The time is not yet right for the three pan-blue parties to merge, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesman Alex Tsai (
Tsai was responding to questions about whether the KMT and its splinter parties -- the New Party and the People First Party (PFP) -- will merge following KMT Chairman Lien Chan's (連戰) remarks during a rally on Saturday that the three parties will cooperate even more closely in the wake of the March 20 presidential election.
Tsai said that "there has been consistent speculation to that effect, but the timing is not yet ripe."
"The Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] has pulled out all the stops to try to disintegrate pan-blue cooperation," Tsai said, adding that he wanted to advise the DPP to direct its efforts in the right places.
Meanwhile, an ally of the DPP urged Lien to concede defeat and step down as party chairman.
Taiwan Solidarity Union whip Cheng Chen-lung (
"Lien should pass the baton to others and let the grand old party become Taiwanized," Cheng said, adding that Legislative Yuan President Wang Jin-pyng (
Cheng said that the KMT should learn the will of the people to move toward the direction of Taiwanization, adding that if Wang serves as its chairman, the party can maintain its power to balance that of the ruling party.
He also said that PFP Chairman James Soong (
He said the KMT and the PFP will have to go their own ways in the year-end legislative elections.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
China has reserved offshore airspace over the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts that are usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Sunday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. The alerts, known as notice to air missions (NOTAMs), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert
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