The government and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators have agreed to prioritize a bill for the current legislative session that would subject any peace agreement with China to a national referendum.
The consensus was reached at a meeting between the Executive Yuan and the legislature hosted by Deputy Premier Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) and DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), Cabinet spokesperson Kolas Yotaka said yesterday.
The proposed legislation, which would amend the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (台灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), calls for a referendum to be held before any cross-strait peace agreement can be formally signed.
The Cabinet’s push to get the amendment passed early in this session came after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) said on Thursday that the KMT could sign a peace treaty with Beijing if it regained the presidency next year.
The bill was one of 47 bills set to be prioritized for review during the legislative session that started on Friday.
The priority bills have been divided into three categories — major issues of public concern, proposals seeking to strengthen Taiwan and initiatives aimed at protecting the nation.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
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Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching