A number of major bills and amendments are scheduled to be discussed during the new legislative session that opens on Feb. 26, which will mark the first legislative session after the latest Cabinet reshuffle.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will submit priority bills for this session, including a proposed amendment to the Public Debt Act (公共債務法), a proposed amendment to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenue and Expenditure (財政收支劃分法) and an amendment to the anti-media monopoly bill.
The Executive Yuan will also submit an amendment to the nation’s pension programs in April, over which the KMT and the DPP remain at odds, lawmakers said.
“It will take time to incubate the pension reform plan,” KMT Legislator Lin Te-fu (林德福) said, adding that reform should progress step-by-step through negotiations.
Premier-designate Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) is expected to report on the new Cabinet’s major policy goals and agenda for the coming year during the session.
Meanwhile, KMT caucus whip Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) said that the new Cabinet needs to put greater effort into helping lawmakers fully understand the amendments to be discussed.
The military has spotted two Chinese warships operating in waters near Penghu County in the Taiwan Strait and sent its own naval and air forces to monitor the vessels, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. Beijing sends warships and warplanes into the waters and skies around Taiwan on an almost daily basis, drawing condemnation from Taipei. While the ministry offers daily updates on the locations of Chinese military aircraft, it only rarely gives details of where Chinese warships are operating, generally only when it detects aircraft carriers, as happened last week. A Chinese destroyer and a frigate entered waters to the southwest
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s comment last year on Tokyo’s potential reaction to a Taiwan-China conflict has forced Beijing to rewrite its invasion plans, a retired Japanese general said. Takaichi told the Diet on Nov. 7 last year that a Chinese naval blockade or military attack on Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, potentially allowing Tokyo to exercise its right to collective self-defense. Former Japan Ground Self-Defense Force general Kiyofumi Ogawa said in a recent speech that the remark has been interpreted as meaning Japan could intervene in the early stages of a Taiwan Strait conflict, undermining China’s previous assumptions
Taiwan Railways Corp (TRC) today announced that Shin Kong Mitsukoshi has been selected as the preferred bidder to operate the Taipei Railway Station shopping mall, replacing the current operator, Breeze Development Co Ltd. Among eight qualified firms that delivered presentations and were evaluated by a review committee, Shin Kong Mitsukoshi was ranked first, while Breeze was named the runner-up, the rail company said in a statement. Contract negotiations are to proceed in accordance with regulations, it said, adding that if negotiations with the top bidder fail, it could invite the second-ranked applicant to enter talks. Breeze in a statement today expressed doubts over
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