A Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmaker's proposal to recall the president generated enthusiastic discussion in the KMT's Central Standing Committee meeting yesterday, although KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (
KMT Legislator Ting Shou-chung (
The proposal, however, met with a cool response from Ma and the other members of the Central Standing Committee.
"The Kaohsiung mayoral and councilor elections are a big enough task for us. I think we should consider the timing and the special circumstances of the elections in the south first," KMT Legislator Huang Chao-shun (
KMT Legislator Wu Yu-sheng (吳育昇) also opposed the proposal, saying the party's legislative caucus should propose a motion of censure instead.
Ting defended his proposal as an attempt to prevent the president from creating more political feuding and cross-strait upset.
KMT Legislator Chu Fong-chi (
"Chen is a public enemy, and the KMT should be a responsible opposition party and take the chance to force Chen to think about the consequences of his actions," she said.
Ma called on party members not to overlook the seriousness of the matter, and ordered the policy committee to conduct careful research before making any decision.
Ma yesterday denied he was planning to merge the National Policy Foundation, whose chairman is former KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰), with the party
The foundation, which served as the KMT's think tank under the administration of Lien, has a total of 483 staff, and is reportedly facing serious financial difficulty after the party failed to provide it with NT$60 million (US$1.85 million) in funds.
Ma dismissed the rumor that the KMT is merging the foundation with the party, while stressing that his party is suffering from a heavy financial burden.
"We do not have any such plans so far, but I hope that everyone can understand that the KMT is currently suffering from severe financial difficulties," Ma said at KMT headquarters yesterday morning.
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