Proceedings were stymied yesterday on the first day of the legislative session, after Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers boycotted Premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) administrative report.
The KMT caucus cited three reasons for their boycott: a proposed amendment targeting “Chinese Communist Party (CCP) agents”; a duty-free cigarette smuggling scandal that erupted in July; and an incident involving Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文), who left a bag containing NT$3 million (US$96,665) in cash on a train.
The KMT caucus demanded that the “malignant law” targeting CCP agents be retracted and that President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) deliver a report to the Legislative Yuan on the cigarette smuggling incident.
Photo: CNA
KMT legislators brought prop cigarettes cartons and carried cups of bubble tea with them as they occupied the speaker’s podium hours before 9am, when the session was scheduled to begin.
The bubble tea was an apparent dig at Chen’s son, Chen Cheng-ting (陳政廷), who said that his parents intended to give him the NT$3 million to open a bubble tea store in the Philippines.
After reading the schedule determined during cross-caucus talks on Sept. 3, Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) concluded the meeting at about 10:30am.
Later in the day, the caucuses reached an agreement to have the nominee for auditor-general — Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Deputy Minister Chen Ruei-min (陳瑞敏) — attend a question-and-answer session on Thursday next week.
His nomination is to be voted on the following day.
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,
The Ministry of Culture yesterday officially launched the “We TAIWAN” cultural program on Osaka’s Nakanoshima sandbank, with the program’s mascot receiving overwhelming popularity. The cultural program, which runs from Aug. 2 to 20, was designed to partner with and capitalize on the 2025 World Expo that is being held in Osaka, Japan, from April 13 to Oct. 13, the ministry said. On the first day of the cultural program, its mascot, a green creature named “a-We,” proved to be extremely popular, as its merch was immediately in high demand. Long lines formed yesterday for the opening
BE CAREFUL: The virus rarely causes severe illness or death, but newborns, older people and those with medical conditions are at risk of more severe illness As more than 7,000 cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in China’s Guangdong Province this year, including 2,892 new cases last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday said it is monitoring the situation and considering raising the travel notice level, which might be announced today. The CDC issued a level 1 travel notice, or “watch,” for Guangdong Province on July 22, citing an outbreak in Foshan, a manufacturing hub in the south of the province, that was reported early last month. Between July 27 and Saturday, the province reported 2,892 new cases of chikungunya, reaching a total of 7,716
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