New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫), who is the only candidate running for the chairmanship of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), on Sunday pledged to make an effort to narrow the wealth gap, saying that to achieve the goal, taxes on wealthy people must be raised and those on the working class should be lowered.
One important thing is “allowing wealthy people and capitalists to be able to earn reasonable profits and letting them share the money they have made with the general public,” Chu said at a presentation of political platforms in New Taipei City.
It was the first of 11 presentations planned by the KMT for its chairman election, which is slated for Jan. 17. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) resigned from the post on Dec. 3 in response to the losses the party suffered in the Nov. 29 local elections.
The presentations are to be held in cities and counties around the nation.
Chu is the only KMT candidate to have been elected in a mayoral election in one of the six special municipal cities — Taipei, New Taipei City, Greater Taoyuan, Greater Taichung, Greater Tainan and Greater Kaohsiung.
On Sunday, Chu proposed a revision to the Company Act (公司法) that would see the profits of a company first spent on wage hikes for employees. He also said that “it is not right” that stock dividends enjoyed by the wealthy have reduced taxes or are exempt.
Meanwhile, Chu reiterated his pledge to promote reform of the Constitution, including switching to a parliamentary system, in which power and responsibility would go hand in hand.
Under the current system, power is shared by a popularly elected president and his appointed premier. However, the system has long been criticized as incommensurate, since power holders are not held responsible for their performance.
UNDER WATCH: Taiwan will have to establish a standardized nucleic acid testing method to identify the virus and monitor its spread, the CDC said The Langya henipavirus, which can be transmitted from animals to humans, has been discovered in China, with 35 human infections reported so far, Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said, adding that the nation would establish a nucleic acid testing method to identify the virus. A study titled “A Zoonotic Henipavirus in Febrile Patients in China” that was published in the New England Journal of Medicine on Thursday said that a new henipavirus associated with a fever-causing human illness was identified in China. The study said an investigation identified 35 patients with acute infection of the Langya henipavirus in China’s Shandong
MISSILE PATHS: Certain information on the Chinese missile fire was not disclosed to maintain secrecy over military intelligence-gathering capabilities, the MND said Military experts yesterday speculated on the implication of the government’s tight-lipped response and the lack of air-raid sirens during the first day of China’s military drills the previous day. On Thursday, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched 11 Dongfeng-series ballistic missiles into waters north, east and south of Taiwan, a day after US House of Representative Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s departure from the country, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. The Japanese Ministry of Defense said that China fired nine missiles toward Taiwan, including four that flew over Taiwan proper. However, China’s exhibition of force failed to terrorize the local populace, because
If any war were to break out between the US and China, one trigger might be the increasingly frequent fighter jet encounters near Taiwan. Almost every day, Taiwanese fighter pilots hop in their US-made F-16s to intercept Chinese warplanes screaming past their territory. The encounters probe the nation’s defenses and force the pilots on both sides to avoid mistakes that could lead to a crisis that spins out of control. “I didn’t know whether they would fire at me,” said retired colonel Mountain Wang, recounting a tense five-minute confrontation he had with Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) jets more than a decade
INCREASINGLY EMBOLDENED: China can no longer be dismissed as inexperienced, demonstrating an ability to coordinate land and sea missile systems, an expert said Beijing’s largest-ever exercises around Taiwan have offered essential clues into its plans for a grueling blockade in the event of an attack on Taiwan, and revealed an increasingly emboldened Chinese military, experts said. The visit to Taiwan by US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi — second in line to the presidency — sparked outrage from Beijing, which launched vast military maneuvers around the nation, even at the risk of partially exposing its plans to the US and its Asian allies. Mobilizing fighter planes, helicopters and warships, the drills aim to simulate a blockade of Taiwan and include practicing an “attack on