Hoping to hammer out the details of People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong's (
"The PFP is working for the future of cross-strait relations and to facilitate dialogue between the governments [of China and Taiwan]. We are exerting all our efforts for the Taiwanese people to make a contribution to this land," Chin said yesterday before departing for Beijing via Hong Kong.
At the airport yesterday morning, Chin also said that Soong's trip to China is being made as the chairman of a Taiwanese opposition party and in the spirit of the so-called "1992 consensus."
Accompanying Chin on his trip yesterday were PFP Legislator Lee Yung-ping (李永萍), party policy department head Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀), deputy head of the PFP's administrative department Yeh Chia-yu (葉家宇) and deputy communications department head Wu Kun-yu (吳崑玉).
In a statement released by the party Saturday night about Chin's departure, the PFP reiterated its previous stance on Soong's upcoming journey to China. With Taiwan as its top priority and cross-strait peace as its core principle, the PFP hopes to negotiate with China under an atmosphere of mutual respect and sincerity after consolidating the views of both the governing and opposition camps, the statement said.
Soong is expected to visit China within the first 10 days of May. His trip will come on the heels of a similar trip by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
On the KMT side yesterday, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
In regards to the president's attitude on the so-called "1992 consensus," more time is needed to see change, Ma said.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) today condemned the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) after the Czech officials confirmed that Chinese agents had surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March last year. Czech Military Intelligence director Petr Bartovsky yesterday said that Chinese operatives had attempted to create the conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, going as far as to plan a collision with her car. Hsiao was vice president-elect at the time. The MAC said that it has requested an explanation and demanded a public apology from Beijing. The CCP has repeatedly ignored the desires