Lisa Huang (
"Since `non-partisan' means not sharing common political ideology, the public might become confused if such a name is permitted to be registered, as the name and the group's mission do not support one another," said Huang, who is an attorney.
Independent Legislator Su Ying-kuei (
"I was in a taxi today and the cab driver asked me if I was a member of NSU. It seems the public is perplexed about the group," Su said.
The NSU was formed yesterday when Chang Po-ya (
The NSU's membership so far includes nine other members: independent Legislators Yen Chin-piao (顏清標), Tsai Hao (蔡豪), May Chin (高金素梅), Walis Pelin (瓦歷斯貝林) and Chen Chin-ding (陳進丁); former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators Lin Pin-kun (林炳坤), Lu Shin-ming (呂新民); former People First Party (PFP) legislator Chiu Chuang-liang (邱創良); and former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Cheng Yu-cheng (鄭余鎮).
Huang cited the Social Groups Registration Regulation (
"According to this regulation, if a group's name, purpose and mission are not in accordance with one another, then the group's registration does not meet the stipulated procedural requirements," Huang said.
Huang also stated that the NSU is not in position to represent the majority of Taiwanese people who are not registered members of any political party.
"According to statistics, the total number of registered members of political parties comes to about 1.7 million, which is a small proportion of the population. Therefore, the NSU cannot be representative of all the rest," Huang said.
In response, the ministry's Department of Civil Affairs, which is in charge of political party registrations, stated that the ministry respects people's freedom of choice when it comes to selecting party names.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were