While no officials would confirm that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party (PFP) plan to work together in the legislative speaker and deputy speaker race, the KMT is still trying to to "flirt" with the PFP, reports said yesterday.
Chinese-language media said yesterday that the KMT had told the PFP that it would leave the deputy speakership vacant for a PFP candidate, so that the KMT and the PFP could have a joint candidacy in the speakership race. The report also said that the PFP would decide on its deputy speakership candidate next Monday.
But neither the KMT nor the PFP would confirm the report. Leading politicians from the two parties said that they had not heard anything about KMT-PFP collaboration in the race.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
"I don't know about this [KMT-PFP cooperation], and this is still being handled by party headquarters," Wang said, when asked about the issue by reporters.
"I don't know whether the party headquarters have contacted the PFP directly, but what the newspaper printed was worth some consideration," Wang said.
PFP caucus whip Liu Wen-hsiung (
"The PFP will strive for the deputy speakership position, because the KMT has made friendly gestures toward the PFP, and the PFP will also make kind gestures toward the KMT -- not to exclude the possibility that incumbent Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng can continue his speakership," Liu said.
"It is definitely more likely that the PFP will work with the KMT in the race, rather than with the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP], and PFP-KMT collaboration can work very well," Liu said.
But DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (
"Someone is trying to portray a failure for DPP-PFP cooperation, and from now to Feb. 1 there is still plenty of time; Taiwanese politics has never been simple and there are still many variables. The result of the race will not be known until all the ballots are counted," Ker said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching