Premier Frank Hsieh (
"Chairman Lien said that he is going to China because he wants to do something for the Taiwanese people. However, if that is the case, he should help us pass several important bills that concern the public and have been pending at the legislature for a while, before he works on foreign affairs," Hsieh said. "It is really not persuasive that he is doing something for the people."
Hsieh said that, since the KMT holds the majority in the legislature, if Lien wants to do something for the people he should urge his fellow KMT members in the legislature to support the important bills that had been proposed by the government so that the bills would be approved and help the public in different aspects of their daily life.
Hsieh made his remarks during a briefing with lawmakers after hearing complaints from KMT Legislator Kuo Su-chun (
"What [Lien] needs to do is ask KMT lawmakers to support the pending bills and help us approve them. As for his trip to China, all he needs to do is obey the law. That is very simple," Hsieh said. "Unfortunately, what he is doing now is not persuasive, is it?"
Under the law, anybody who tries to represent the country or makes deals or agreements with a foreign country must gain the authorization from his own country beforehand. However, Lien has yet to talk to any government officials, although the KMT has announced that Lien will meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao (
"The KMT is the majority in legislature. If they (KMT lawmakers) feel that the current law is unfair to their chairman, they can try to fix it. However, it will not be logical and reasonable if they do not want to amend the law, and yet do not want to follow the law, either," Hsieh said. "If everybody does the same thing, the government will be screwed."
The premier said that he is expecting the KMT chairman to be a good role model for the people by following the rules. As for People First Party Chairman James Soong's (
"Soong and President Chen Shui-bian (
In addition, Soong never said that he will not discuss his trip to China with the government. So we do not have to worry about it yet," Hsieh said.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods