The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said that remarks made by former American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) chairman Richard Bush on the sidelines of a closed-door seminar between KMT presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) and dozens of US academics in Washington on Friday was suggestive of US support for the KMT chairman.
KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said Bush’s remarks that the US valued the cross-strait developments under President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration since 2008 and that it would like to see it continued was what the US had been wanting to say, but could not.
“This bodes ill for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), as in the US’ mind, the KMT and the DPP have already been graded based on their cross-strait policies,” Lin said.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Lin said Bush’s remark that “What people say during elections might vastly differ from what they say after becoming policymakers. To me, that is where the problems lie,” was disguised criticism of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and the DPP’s cross-strait policies.
KMT Lawmaker Alex Tsai (蔡正元) said that DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) claimed her objective for cross-strait ties is to maintain the “status quo,” but she has refused to explain her methods for achieving that goal.
“Bush has publicly challenged Tsai Ing-wen’s ‘status quo’ policy. What would the consequences be if the DPP chairperson pursues a cross-strait policy different from that of Ma? She has yet to comment on that issue,” he said.
Chu arrived back in Taiwan early yesterday after a week-long visit to the US as part of his presidential campaign.
He left Taiwan on Tuesday last week for meetings with US officials, including Deputy US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and academics, as well as Taiwanese expatriates in Los Angeles, Washington, New York and San Francisco.
Soon after his return, Chu is expected to name his running mate.
A report by the Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday said that the KMT is likely to put Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), a veteran lawmaker and president of the legislature, on the top of the party’s list of legislator-at-large nominees.
Additional reporting by CNA
Considering that most countries issue more than five denominations of banknotes, the central bank has decided to redesign all five denominations, the bank said as it prepares for the first major overhaul of the banknotes in more than 24 years. Central bank Governor Yang Chin-lung (楊金龍) is expected to report to the Legislative Yuan today on the bank’s operations and the redesign’s progress. The bank in a report sent to the legislature ahead of today’s meeting said it had commissioned a survey on the public’s preferences. Survey results showed that NT$100 and NT$1,000 banknotes are the most commonly used, while NT$200 and NT$2,000
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported the first case of a new COVID-19 subvariant — BA.3.2 — in a 10-year-old Singaporean girl who had a fever upon arrival in Taiwan and tested positive for the disease. The girl left Taiwan on March 20 and the case did not have a direct impact on the local community, it said. The WHO added the BA.3.2 strain to its list of Variants Under Monitoring in December last year, but this was the first imported case of the COVID-19 variant in Taiwan, CDC Deputy Director-General Lin Ming-cheng (林明誠) said. The girl arrived in Taiwan on
South Korea is planning to revise its controversial electronic arrival card, a step Taiwanese officials said prompted them to hold off on planned retaliatory measures, a South Korean media report said yesterday. A Yonhap News Agency report said that the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs is planning to remove the “previous departure place” and “next destination” fields from its e-arrival card system. The plan, reached after interagency consultations, is under review and aims to simplify entry procedures and align the electronic form with the paper version, a South Korean ministry official said. The fields — which appeared only on the electronic form
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) is suspending retaliation measures against South Korea that were set to take effect tomorrow, after Seoul said it is updating its e-arrival system, MOFA said today. The measures were to be a new round of retaliation after Taiwan on March 1 changed South Korea's designation on government-issued alien resident certificates held by South Korean nationals to "South Korea” from the "Republic of Korea," the country’s official name. The move came after months of protests to Seoul over its listing of Taiwan as "China (Taiwan)" in dropdown menus on its new online immigration entry system. MOFA last week
RSS