The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said yesterday that it will not request a constitutional interpretation of the Organic Law of the National Communications Commission (NCC,
"It is not too late to submit a request to the Council of Grand Justices if the pan-blue camp tries to interfere with the operation of the NCC after it is established," DPP caucus whip William Lai (
However, the DPP's pan-green ally, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU), said it is considering filing for a constitutional interpretation from the Council of Grand Justices as well as thinking about cutting related budgets.
"It is a clear compromise with the pro-unification media because the DPP caucus does not want to request a constitutional interpretation, nor does the Executive Yuan aspire to request the legislature reconsider the legislation," TSU caucus whip Mark Ho (何敏豪) said.
Ho questioned whether all the efforts the pan-green alliance had put in to safeguarding the administrative power of the Executive Yuan and neutrality of the NCC, including strong and sometimes violent opposition, had all been pointless.
The pan-blue alliance yesterday welcomed the president's promulgation of the law and said they would like to see the body become operational by Jan. 1 next year.
The pan-blue dominated legislature finally passed the NCC law on Oct. 25 after nine rounds of cross-party negotiations.
DPP Legislator Ker Chien-ming (
Under the law, political parties will nominate 15 candidates for the NCC committee, with each party's number of selections in proportion to the number of seats they have in the legislature. The premier will nominate a further three candidates, for a total of 18.
An 11-member review committee will then select 13 NCC members from the pool, with the consent of three-fifths of the review committee required for each selection. If fewer than 13 NCC members are chosen in the first round of the ballot, the consent of one-half of the review committee is needed to fill the remaining places.
The premier will then nominate the 13 recommended NCC members seven days after the review committee's selections, pending the ratification of the legislature.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
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,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift