Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip Lin Hung-chih (林鴻池) said yesterday that the party was open to a line-by-line review of the cross-strait service trade agreement at the second reading stage in the legislature, but rejected the possibility that the pact be returned for a committee review.
Lin made the remarks to reporters after a meeting called by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday afternoon at his residence.
Wang invited the caucus whips of the KMT, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) to discuss the ongoing gridlock as the protest against the agreement entered its fourth day.
The DPP did not attend the meeting.
Prompted by a KMT ruling on Monday that the trade pact be sent to a second reading in the legislature for a vote as a whole amid a disagreement with the DPP about which party should take charge of a review at the committee stage, tens of thousands of students and protesters staged a protest which has paralyzed the operations of the legislature since Tuesday.
Lin said he restated the party’s position to Wang that the trade pact had already cleared the committee stage on Monday, but the party was open to a review process at the second reading stage in response to calls that the agreement be subject to a review on a clause-by-clause basis.
TSU Legislator Lai Chen-chang (賴振昌) said the party supports the demands of the protesters that the government reject the agreement and that lawmakers pass legislation to increases legislative supervision of cross-strait negotiations.
No consensus was reached on how to resolve the dispute, the lawmakers said.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS