The Presidential Office said yesterday it is regrettable that the pan-blue alliance leaders have refused to meet with President Chen Shui-bian (
Presidential Office spokesman James Huang (
Huang said the two pan-blue leaders, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), took the initiative to meet with Chen to discuss disputes over the March 20 presidential election outcome.
After Chen agreed to meet with them unconditionally, Huang said, the pan-blue alliance brought up a new proposal that legislation be enacted to allow for the formation of an investigative committee under the Legislative Yuan to probe the election-eve assassination attempt on the president, as well as the incident's impact on the presidential election outcome.
In response to the pan-blue alliance's new request, Huang said, Chen directed Presidential Office Secretary-General Chiou I-jen (
"The Ministry of Justice and the legislative caucus of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) both oppose the proposal on the grounds that forming such a special committee violates the ROC Constitution and existing laws," Huang said
He added that the Cabinet is still studying how to accommodate the pan-blue alliance's request within the legal framework.
Huang said he feels regret that the pan-blue alliance has rejected a Chen-Lien-Soong meeting simply because of the two sides' different views on the necessity of setting up a special investigative committee.
But KMT Secretary-General Lin said an independent inquiry into the election-eve shooting is equally important.
"We want truth, fairness, justice and rule of law," Lin said.
He claimed that the rejection of the pan-blue alliance's proposal for the formation of a special investigative committee to look into the shooting and the activation of a so-called national security mechanism in the wake of the incident indicates that Chen is insincere in offering to meet with Lien and Soong.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERs IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report
RSS