Cross-party negotiations on a political donations bill broke up yesterday when the pan-blue camp sought to skirt the issue of legislative reform.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
Wang also announced that the legislature would recess a week before the March 20 election.
However, both the pan-blue and pan-green camps later denied they had reached any agreement during the negotiations and blamed each other for the impasse.
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus said the talks failed because the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) added articles to the agreement without opposition approval.
The KMT warned that the green camp would have to shoulder responsibility if the bill governing political donations is not passed before the election.
KMT caucus leader Liao Feng-te (
Liao said that no pan-green representative signed, and that the green camp added words to the agreement after Wang left the talks, resulting in the failure of negotiations.
According to the written agreement shown by Liao, the clauses said that the political party bill and the draft for the Statute Regarding the Establishment and Management of the Financial Reconstruction Fund (
The pan-green camp said that if the legislature wanted to recess before the election, all caucuses should sign the bill for halving the number of legislative seats.
"There is no way that we will recess before the election if the bill is not signed," DPP whip Ker Chien-ming (
Ker added that, while the green camp had signed the bill, no one from the pan-blue camp had signed.
The bill is stuck in the Constitutional Amendment Committee and shows no sign of progressing, although all leading politicians in the country have shown support for it. If all legislative caucus leaders sign the bill, it can get out of the committee stage and get its second and third readings in the legislature.
"If we are going to have extra sittings to consider the bills, then it is not possible that we will deal with only the bill governing political donations. The political party bill and the amended draft for the Statute Regarding the Establishment and Management of the Financial Reconstruction Fund should be considered at the same time," Ker said.
Meanwhile, Premier Yu Shyi-kun met former Democratic Progressive Party chairman Lin I-hsiung (
TSU caucus leader Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) led all his party's legislators except one, who was in his constituency, in sitting with Lin for two hours to show their support.
The cross-party talks will continue next week.
Also see story:
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS