Print

Mail

wiki links

Chen cancels meeting amid infighting

President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) yesterday canceled a meeting amid wrangling between Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) and ex-party chairman Yu Shyi-kun.

Chen was scheduled to receive foreign guests attending this year's Biotechnology Taiwan at 11am at the Presidential Office, but called it off at the last minute.

National Security Council Secretary-General Mark Chen (陳唐山) was asked to to attend the meeting on the president's behalf. The event was originally open to the media but media personnel were later denied access.

Presidential Office Spokesman David Lee (李南陽) downplayed the president's absence, saying he was in a regular meeting with Presidential Office Secretary-General Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) and the two deputy secretaries-generals, Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁).

Lee said the president had canceled the 11am meeting because the previous engagement dragged on too long.

The president usually meets the secretary-general and two deputy secretary-generals at around 10am to discuss current events.

Lee declined to comment on whether the three officials had touched on the controversy surrounding the DPP's "normal country" resolution, which passed the DPP national congress on Sunday.

Yu, who preferred more explicit rhetoric, has resigned over the controversy despite calls for him to stay.

He has refused to comment on the matter since his resignation.

Hsieh, who was scheduled to attend a campaign rally that was to follow the congress meeting on Sunday, stunned the party when his decision not to show up was announced by Yeh.

Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) yesterday also canceled her meeting with Jerome Cohen, adjunct senior fellow for Asia studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, nonpartisan US think tank.

Lu, however, invited Cohen to attend a seminar held at the Presidential Office to discuss democratization in Myanmar.

Lu announced after the event that the Pacific Network for Democracy in Burma would be established under the Democratic Pacific Union, Lu's brainchild.
This story has been viewed 1602 times.