Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) marked Youth Day yesterday by climbing Tatunshan in suburban Taipei with a group of students, where he outlined his vision for Taiwan, in particular the country's relations with China.
Wang appealed for peace between Taiwan and China in light of recent cross-strait tensions, and he unveiled his intention to invite Wu Bangguo (吳邦國), chairman of the Standing Committee under the China's National People's Congress to visit Taiwan.
"Now that our people have gone to the mainland for a visit, it is time for theirs to come to Taiwan," Wang said, referring to a Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) delegation led by party Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kun (江丙坤) that headed to China on Monday.
PHOTO: WANG MING-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
Chiang's trip to China is widely believed to clear the way for a planned China visit by KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) in June. Lien is slated to step down from the party's top post in August.
The time is right for the legislature to invite Wu to Taiwan to help promote sound exchanges and usher in peace across the Taiwan Strait, Wang said.
Pointing out that a legislative task force is also expected to be set up soon to help the government address the fragile cross-strait situation, he said that the Legislative Yuan would also consider sending a mission to visit China.
Asked if he himself would be willing to visit China, Wang made it clear that he would only do so under the principles of parity and reciprocity and when the time is ripe and with the approval of the Taiwanese people.
He called on the government to step up exchanges among students across the Taiwan Strait and suggested academic accreditation between the two sides given that more and more Taiwanese students are heading to China to study.
Stressing that Youth Day is a time to remember the young people that sacrificed their lives to help found the Republic of China in the party's uprising against the Qing Dynasty -- China's last empire -- Wang also urged visionary young people to join the KMT at a time when it needs new blood for reform and to propel the nation forward.
Wang's visit to Tatunshan with students was seen by some as a move to prop up backing for his bid for the KMT chairmanship against Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九).
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:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
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
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater