Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
"Everything will be done in accordance with the law and in the spirit of following the law," Wang said when asked whether he would attend the inauguration.
According to the Seal Statute (
Wang also said that he had not discussed the matter with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰).
"There is no need to consult others about attending the inauguration. I am not being pressured on whether I should go or not. Everything will be dealt with according to the law," Wang said. He said the pan-blue camp's chances of having the election results overturned through a vote recount are unknown.
"The first thing the recount must focus on is finding out how many ballots, among those of the 3.3 million eligible voters who did not vote, were in fact cast fraudulently. But this requires that we obtain concrete evidence by checking the voter rolls," Wang said. "Only if we find more than 29,000 cases of ballots being obtained and cast fraudulently can the election be annulled."
"It is not known how probable it is that the result will be overturned, but the pan-blue camp should accept the results of the recount," Wang said.
Meanwhile, Wang said that Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
The KMT decided Wednesday to set up a group on party reforms. This group's four sub-groups include one in charge of the year-end legislative election campaign.
The election sub-group is to be headed by KMT Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (
Wang was asked yesterday whether Ma's not being assigned to head the election group meant that Ma was losing power in the party. Wang said that this was not the case and that he had invited Ma to join the election group, and said that Ma had agreed.
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
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
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