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.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a