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.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
The eastern extension of the Taipei MRT Red Line could begin operations as early as late June, the Taipei Department of Rapid Transit Systems said yesterday. Taipei Rapid Transit Corp said it is considering offering one month of free rides on the new section to mark its opening. Construction progress on the 1.4km extension, which is to run from the current terminal Xiangshan Station to a new eastern terminal, Guangci/Fengtian Temple Station, was 90.6 percent complete by the end of last month, the department said in a report to the Taipei City Council's Transportation Committee. While construction began in October 2016 with an
NON-RED SUPPLY: Boosting the nation’s drone industry is becoming increasingly urgent as China’s UAV dominance could become an issue in a crisis, an analyst said Taiwan’s drone exports to Europe grew 41.7-fold from 2024 to last year, with demand from Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression the most likely driver of growth, a study showed. The Institute for Democracy, Society and Emerging Technology (DSET) in a statement on Wednesday said it found that many of Taiwan’s uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) sales were from Poland and the Czech Republic. These countries likely transferred the drones to Ukraine to aid it in its fight against the Russian invasion that started in 2022, it said. Despite the gains, Taiwan is not the dominant drone exporter to these markets, ranking second and fourth
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
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