The second presidential debate will stick to the format adopted in the 2004 presidential debates and give presidential candidates more time to elaborate on their platforms, organizers of the debate said yesterday.
Following the first televised presidential debate last Sunday, debate organizers, including the Central News Agency, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister newspaper), the China Times, the United Daily News, the Apple Daily, and the Public Television Service (PTS), met last night to review the first debate and agreed that presidential candidates would answer questions filed by managers from the five media outlets at the second debate, which will be held on Sunday.
QUESTION
According to Sylvia Feng (
The question-and-answer segment will be followed by a 35-minute section in which Ma and Hsieh will be able to challenge each other.
The two candidates will be given six minutes each to conclude the debate, Feng said after attending the preparatory meeting held at the Grand Formosa Regent Hotel in Taipei.
Feng said the meeting focused on discussion of the format and questions that would be raised in the second debate, and did not address the format of the first debate.
The first debate invited members of the public to submit questions for the candidates by recording 30-second video clips.
The candidates responded to 20 videotaped questions selected by the organizers from among 456 questions contributed to a Web site specially set up for the general public for the debate.
The 20 people chosen were then given the opportunity to question both candidates directly.
COMPLAINTS
Some political critics, however, complained about the unprecedented format of giving only one minute for the candidates to answer each question and challenged how those questions were selected.
Grace Tu (
"We wanted the debates to be innovative and we think the questioners performed very well at the first debate. They were well-prepared and appreciated the opportunity to put questions to the candidates," Tu told the Taipei Times.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard