Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) said yesterday that the special task force on cross-strait affairs that the legislature is planning to set up will facilitate direct and effective exchanges between Taiwan and China.
As to his proposal to invite Wu Bangguo (吳邦國), chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress of China, to visit, Wang said the proposal will have to be approved by the task force and the legislature before it can be carried out.
Wang, who is also a vice chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), put forth the proposal on Tuesday and immediately met opposition from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Taiwan Solidarity Union legislators.
As for the visit to China by KMT Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kun (
Wang said the KMT hopes to do something for the country and should not be mistaken as intending to conduct some kind of peace talks with the Chinese Communist Party.
According to Wang, the KMT is seeking various means to try to remove the barriers between the two sides.
For example, Wang said, a visit by a KMT delegation earlier this year helped clear the way for the launch of the cross-strait Lunar New Year charter flights.
He said that the visit to China by KMT members is a kind of civil exchange and that the KMT does not represent the country without the government's authorization.
He also said that the postponement of the KMT chairmanship election until July has nothing to do with Chairman Lien Chan's (
DPP Legislator Trong Chai (
Chai also called Wang's proposal to recognize Chinese academic degrees "a very dangerous thing," warning that "Taiwan could be subverted" by people who receive education in China if the proposal is adopted by the government.
Lawmaker Tsai Huang-liang, also of the DPP, said inviting Wu to Taiwan is not something the country and its people need.
He urged Wang to stop using cross-Taiwan Strait issues as a means of boosting his chances of winning his competition with Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
DPP Legislator Pan Meng-an, meanwhile, accused Wang of betraying the sovereignty of Taiwan just to win the support of pan-blue alliance hardliners.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
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