Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu’s (洪秀柱) spokesperson Jack Yu (游梓翔) yesterday said that if People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) joins the race, he would be helping the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) secure an easy win.
Soong has remained ambiguous regarding his intent to run, but said that it is the KMT, rather than anyone else, that is leading itself to its doom. The PFP is a KMT splinter group that formed after the 2000 presidential election.
Yu yesterday said on Facebook that he respects Soong, as they both served as heads of the National Chengchi University debate club and that he had worked in Soong’s campaign team.
However, it is impossible for Soong to not know that the DPP would run off with the bone should both the KMT and PFP have candidates in the presidential race, he said.
Meanwhile, at a central meeting of the PFP yesterday, Soong lashed out at the KMT for failing to reflect on its actions, in reference to a KMT member saying at the KMT congress on Sunday that it is Taiwanese who did not do justice by the KMT in the nine-in-one elections in November last year.
“Is it really that the public has done the KMT and the government wrong, or is it that the government has failed to serve the people?” Soong said. “As a veteran politician, from what I’ve seen so far, I have to say that we have let Taiwanese down, and this is what, above all else, we need to seriously contemplate.”
He then quoted a classical Chinese literary phrase, insinuating that it is the KMT itself, and not its opponents, that is leading it toward its doom.
The PFP has always made the well-being of Taiwanese its top priority, he said, adding that “the fundamentalists of both the KMT and the DPP hate us, because we never go to extremes.”
Asked whether he would run for president, Soong said the question was not whether he should run, but rather what he could “do for Taiwan,” which has been at the heart of his deliberation.
PFP Secretary-General Liu Wen-hsiung (劉文雄) on Monday said that it was “almost a sure thing” that Soong would run, with the best timing for an announcement being early next month.
The manufacture of the remaining 28 M1A2T Abrams tanks Taiwan purchased from the US has recently been completed, and they are expected to be delivered within the next one to two months, a source said yesterday. The Ministry of National Defense is arranging cargo ships to transport the tanks to Taiwan as soon as possible, said the source, who is familiar with the matter. The estimated arrival time ranges from late this month to early next month, the source said. The 28 Abrams tanks make up the third and final batch of a total of 108 tanks, valued at about NT$40.5 billion
Two Taiwanese prosecutors were questioned by Chinese security personnel at their hotel during a trip to China’s Henan Province this month, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday. The officers had personal information on the prosecutors, including “when they were assigned to their posts, their work locations and job titles,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesman Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said. On top of asking about their agencies and positions, the officers also questioned the prosecutors about the Cross-Strait Joint Crime-Fighting and Judicial Mutual Assistance Agreement, a pact that serves as the framework for Taiwan-China cooperation on combating crime and providing judicial assistance, Liang
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