Preparations for a meeting between President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) will begin on Monday, Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun said yesterday.
Yu said that details on when and where the meeting would be held had not been decided on, adding that Chen was open to suggestions relating to the meeting's format and content.
PHOTO: TANG SHIH-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
He said that Chen would respect Soong's requirements in relation to the meeting.
Yu's remarks followed reports that Chen and Soong had agreed to meet on Feb. 23 in a gesture of reconciliation between the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and opposition parties.
Meanwhile, Chen yesterday restated his wish to bring about a reconciliation with opposition parties after the Lunar New Year and pursue cooperation with them.
Sunny day
"Thank God that we have a sunny day today after misty weather for the last few days. I hope that Taiwan's political atmosphere will resemble today's weather and be sunny," Chen said while visiting a potato fair in Taichung County.
The fair was organized by former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislator Lin Feng-hsi (
When asked about a possible meeting with Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
Chen praised the farmers for not only exporting produce to Japan, Singapore and Shanghai, but also sharing agricultural skills with allies such as Palau and the Solomon Islands, which had helped the rural sector maintain self-sufficiency.
Later in the day, while visiting Changhua County's flower festival, Chen said Taiwan's political spectrum was like a colorful rainbow and would be boring if the spectrum consisted only of green and blue.
"To make the spectrum more beautiful, we need to add more colors like orange and yellow," Chen said, referring to the PFP and the New Party.
Common goals
"We should focus on common goals and put aside our differences for the sake of the nation," Chen said.
He then expressed the hope that the ruling and opposition parties could achieve reconciliation, and that the Taiwan Strait would remain peaceful.
Elsewhere, supporters of Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Wang yesterday organized a lunch in his hometown of Luchu, Kaohsiung County, to express his appreciation for the support he had received throughout his 30-year political career.
Several KMT and PFP lawmakers urged him to succeed Lien as KMT leader and shouted slogans of support.
Wang responded with a smile and said that he supported Lien for re-election.
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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