Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) expressed his disapproval of yesterday's massive demonstration co-organized by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) against China's "Anti-Secession" Law.
During a meeting with local KMT politicians in Taichung, Lien said the DPP, which controls substantial administrative resources, could have done something more meaningful to express its unhappiness with the law than mobilizing people to take to the streets.
The day was business as usual for the blue camp yesterday, with pan-blue leaders avoiding the pan-green march against China's law while continuing a long-standing voting dispute about the KMT's July chairmanship elections.
No pan-blue political figures made an appearance at yesterday's rally yesterday, despite the fact that several pan-blue legislators and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) had refused to reveal their final decisions on whether they would attend up until the eve of the rally.
Keeping well out of the protest's way, Lien, accompanied by Wang, spent yesterday attending a funeral in Changhua and meeting with supporters in Taichung.
Similarly, People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) also kept a low-profile yesterday. Party spokesman Hsieh Kung-ping (謝公秉) said that Soong was spending the day at home yesterday. Despite his duties as Taipei City mayor, KMT Vice Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) also took time out yesterday morning to visit KMT old guard and meet with Lien in Taichung before rushing back to Taipei to oversee the rally in the afternoon.
Throughout yesterday's rally, the pan-blue camp's response was muted.
"Everyone has different ways of asking for peace. The main point is to keep pursuing peace and stability," said Lien yesterday in Taichung.
Meanwhile, KMT caucus whip Chen Chieh (陳杰) confirmed that he had not heard of any KMT legislators who were planning to attend the march, while adding that the parade was a waste of the country's resources.
"The important thing is that after the march, what direction should be taken with cross-strait relations? Should we continue resisting, pretend that we do not see what is going on, or work for [cross-strait] reconciliation?" KMT spokesman Chang Jung-kung (張榮恭) said yesterday.
To avoid possible damage to the KMT's party headquarters, which is situated near Ketagelan Boulevard, the KMT shut its doors yesterday, although it did not bar party members interested in the rally from attending.
Despite the mass protest, inner-party politics continued for the KMT, with Lien denying media rumors that he had gotten involved in a dispute between party chairman candidates Ma and Wang.
According to a report in the Chinese-language daily the China Times yesterday, Lien said he would resign if a dispute over whether non-paying members of the KMT be allowed to vote in the party's July 16 chairmanship election is put to a vote in the party's Central Standing Committee this week.
The dispute has long been a point of contention between Ma and Wang, with Wang in favor of non-paying party members being given voting rights in the election and Ma opposing that view. While the issue was originally scheduled to be settled this past Wednesday, the matter was unexpectedly put off and will now be decided this coming Wednesday.
Both Lien and the KMT party central denied the report that he might resign, saying that anything of such importance would have been openly announced.
While accompanying Lien in Changhua yesterday, Wang dismissed the report as a "baseless rumor." The party bylaws do not say that members must pay party dues to have voting rights in the KMT chairmanship elections, Wang said yesterday.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
RSS