Premier Simon Chang (張善政) yesterday said that between 20 and 30 bills among the 149 bills sent to the Legislative Yuan have been marked as “priority bills,” including controversial drafts establishing an oversight mechanism for the cross-strait agreements and long-term care service insurance bill.
Chang said in a radio interview yesterday that the priority bills the Executive Yuan identified are those that are deemed important, adding that the government understands that the bills might not be completely accepted by the legislature, but hopes the two sides could have an open mind when discussing them.
“For example, the long-term care service insurance act: The Executive Yuan upholds the version using the idea of insurance [for the funding of the service] while the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] calls for increasing [certain] taxes,” Chang said, adding that the Executive Yuan’s version is not “worthless” and has its pluses.
Photo: CNA
“I wish to pass a version that condenses the strong points of the two proposals,” he said.
However, the most controversial bill is for institutionalizing a cross-strait agreement oversight mechanism.
“There are versions that call for the participation of legislators in the cross-strait negotiations, or holding civil servants legally accountable when the negotiation yields unacceptable outcomes, which would place great pressure on civil officials,” Chang said.
When asked about the idea of a “two-state doctrine” being embedded in the version proposed by civil groups, in which the wording presupposes the negotiation takes place between two states (the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China), the premier said the DPP should act pragmatically.
“Unless you plan to stop talking to [China] in the years to come, I think we need to take [China’s] stance into consideration. You have to be practical. However, how and to what extent are the questions that need be carefully weighed by the DPP and Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文),” he said.
In response to the DPP and the New Power Party caucuses’ call for a suspension of the review of an application to acquire cable and Internet services provider China Network Systems Co, the premier said the Ministry of Economic Affairs’ Investment Commission has not scheduled a review for the case, adding that because the commission is an independent committee, the Executive Yuan would not intervene in its operation.
“However, if the legislature reaches a resolution requiring the commission to halt the review before the committee schedules a review, it is very likely that the commission would respect the decision,” Chang added.
He nevertheless said he was concerned about Taiwanese mistrust of foreign acquisition, which might hinder the nation’s entry into regional economic organizations.
“When I was dealing with [the country’s intended application for joining] the TPP [Trans-Pacific Partnership] and RCEP [Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership], some told us that Taiwan’s review of foreign investment is not transparent enough. This clearly shows that, for Taiwan to be a member of the TPP or RCEP, a lack of transparency would be a barrier.”
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,