The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday called for the Taiwan and Fujian provincial governments to be abolished.
"Both the ruling and opposition parties agree that there is no need for the Taiwan Provincial Government to exist. We hope that they would support its abolition, as well as abolishing the Fujian Provincial Government so that Kinmen and Matsu will fall under the direct supervision of the central government," DPP caucus whip Yeh Yi-jin (葉宜津) said.
The Constitution stipulates that provincial governments and two special municipalities, Taipei and Kaohsiung cities, are one level higher than county and city governments.
There are 21 counties and cities technically under the Taiwan Provincial Government, while two counties -- Kinmen and Lienchiang -- are under the jurisdiction of the Republic of China's Fujian Provincial Government. Lienchiang County is the official administrative title for the Matsu archipelago.
The legislature has slashed NT$770 million (US$24.1 million) earmarked for the Taiwan Provincial Government this year, as well as NT$150 million for the Taiwan Provincial Consultative Council.
In response, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) has decided not to appoint a new line-up for Taiwan Province, a move that has been endorsed on both sides of the legislature.
Although constitutional amendments are needed to abolish the provincial administrations, Yeh yesterday argued that this may not be necessary if the central government instead revised two articles in the Law on Local Government Systems (
"We sincerely hope that the new Cabinet will propose draft revisions to the law soon and that the opposition parties will support a legal overhaul to help streamline government and establish a two-tiered system," Yeh said.
The Provincial Government has become virtually obsolete since it was downsized seven years ago.
Fast food chain McDonald's is to raise prices by up to NT$5 on some products at its restaurants across Taiwan, starting on Wednesday next week, the company announced today. The prices of all extra value meals and sharing boxes are to increase by NT$5, while breakfast combos and creamy corn soup would go up by NT$3, the company said in a statement. The price of the main items of those meals, if ordered individually, would remain the same. Meanwhile, the price of a medium-sized lemon iced tea and hot cappuccino would rise by NT$3, extra dipping sauces for chicken nuggets would go up
Yangmingshan National Park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) nature area has gone viral after a park livestream camera observed a couple in the throes of intimate congress, which was broadcast live on YouTube, drawing large late-night crowds and sparking a backlash over noise, bright lights and disruption to wildlife habitat. The area’s livestream footage appeared to show a couple engaging in sexual activity on a picnic table in the park on Friday last week, with the uncensored footage streamed publicly online. The footage quickly spread across social media, prompting a tide of visitors to travel to the site to “check in” and recreate the
GROUNDED: A KMT lawmaker proposed eliminating drone development programs and freezing funding for counterdrone systems, despite China’s adoption of the technology China has deployed attack drones at air bases near the Taiwan Strait in a strategy aimed at overwhelming Taiwan’s air defense systems through saturation attacks, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said. The council’s latest quarterly report on China said that satellite imagery and open-source intelligence indicate that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) had converted retired J-6 fighter jets into J-6W drones, which the PLA has stationed at six air bases near Taiwan, five in China’s Fujian Province and one in Guangdong Province. The report cited J. Michael Dahm, a senior fellow at the US-based Mitchell Institute, as saying that China has
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