More than 9,000 petitions are sitting in the offices of the Control Yuan, the nation's highest watchdog body, which has not functioned since Feb. 1 because opposition legislators have refused to endorse President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) nominees for Control Yuan members.
Control Yuan Secretary-General Tu Shan-liang (杜善良) said a total of 9,410 petitions have accumulated at the watchdog body since the previous Control Yuan members finished their terms at the end of January.
Tu said the cases needed to be investigated so that the rights of the petitioners were not further compromised. He described the memberless Control Yuan as an "unprecedented and strange phenomenon in the nation's constitutional history."
But he doubted that the opposition party caucuses, who hold a slight majority in the legislature, would approve the nominations submitted by Chen even if an extra legislative session were to be held next month.
Chen first submitted the names of nominees in January for the previous legislature's approval, but opposition legislators refused to approve them, maintaining that most of them were not up to public expectations. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party, which as an alliance retained a majority in the new legislature, asked Chen to submit a new list of nominees on the grounds that his original list for the previous legislature was invalid.
Chen then resubmitted the same list, which opposition legislators are refusing to approve.
Taiwan is to commence mass production of the Tien Kung (天弓, “Sky Bow”) III, IV and V missiles by the second quarter of this year if the legislature approves the government’s NT$1.25 trillion (US$39.78 billion) special defense budget, an official said yesterday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, a defense official with knowledge of the matter said that the advanced systems are expected to provide crucial capabilities against ballistic and cruise missiles for the proposed “T-Dome,” an advanced, multi-layered air defense network. The Tien Kung III is an air defense missile with a maximum interception altitude of 35km. The Tien Kung IV and V
The disruption of 941 flights in and out of Taiwan due to China’s large-scale military exercises was no accident, but rather the result of a “quasi-blockade” used to simulate creating the air and sea routes needed for an amphibious landing, a military expert said. The disruptions occurred on Tuesday and lasted about 10 hours as China conducted live-fire drills in the Taiwan Strait. The Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said the exercises affected 857 international flights and 84 domestic flights, affecting more than 100,000 travelers. Su Tzu-yun (蘇紫雲), a research fellow at the government-sponsored Institute for National Defense and Security Research, said the air
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
A strong continental cold air mass is to bring pollutants to Taiwan from tomorrow, the Ministry of Environment said today, as it issued an “orange” air quality alert for most of the country. All of Taiwan except for Hualien and Taitung counties is to be under an “orange” air quality alert tomorrow, indicating air quality that is unhealthy for sensitive groups. In China, areas from Shandong to Shanghai have been enveloped in haze since Saturday, the ministry said in a news release. Yesterday, hourly concentrations of PM2.5 in these areas ranged from 65 to 160 micrograms per cubic meter (mg/m³), and pollutants were
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