The pan-blue alliance yesterday called on people attending this weekend's demonstration to bring their identification cards along, in order to sign a petition to demand a referendum about establishing a task force to investigate the election-eve assassination attempt.
"I hope the public do not miss out on the nation's first referendum initiated by the people," Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) spokesman Alex Tsai (
"We don't rule out the possibility of calling the referendum alongside the year-end legislative election if we obtain sufficient signatures," Tsai said.
The alliance will need to get 830,000 signatures to file the petition, according to the Referendum Law (公民投票法). The law stipulates that at least 5 percent of eligible voters' signatures are needed to file a petition for a national referendum initiated by the citizenry.
Tsai said that the referendum idea was mooted because the pan-blue camp was convinced that the government was reluctant to find out the truth about the shooting.
"The DPP legislative caucus has made it clear that the establishment of the committee is unconstitutional and vowed to boycott the legislation process of the special law to establish an investigation committee," he said.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
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Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard