The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday recommended that President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) appoint People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) as a special envoy to the US and Japan to build support for Taiwan. The party also urged Soong to help get the US arms purchase passed in the legislature.
In a press conference held yesterday at TSU headquarters, TSU Secretary-General Chen Chien-ming (
"KMT legislators recently pressured the government to accept the 10-point agreement that KMT Vice Chairman Chiang Pin-kun signed with Chinese officials, while PFP lawmakers stressed that the 10-point agreement between the KMT and Chinese Communist Party (CCP) did not supersede the 10-point consensus reached in the Chen-Soong meeting held in early March," Chen Chien-ming said. "Obviously, Chiang's trip to China sought to spoil the outcome of the Chen-Soong meeting and seized the initiative in cross-strait affairs from Soong."
Chen Chien-ming said that he thought that Soong had no need to compete with KMT officials, since Soong may soon have another meeting with the president, according to remarks made by Presidential Office Secretary-General Yu Shyi-kun after the March 26 protest march against China's "Anti-Secession" Law.
"It is useless for the KMT to unilaterally make contact with Beijing," Chen Chien-ming said. "I think the PFP should avoid arguing with the KMT and President Chen should appoint Soong as a special envoy at once to persuade the US and Japan to support Taiwan in cross-strait affairs."
"Now that Soong has said he wants to visit China and help ameliorate cross-strait relations, we suggest that Soong first ask PFP lawmakers to support the arms budget and get it passed in the Legislative Yuan as soon as possible," Chen Chien-ming said. "I think that would be a practical way to carry out the 10-point consensus reached by President Chen and Soong and pave the way for the next Chen-Soong meeting."
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