As the indefinite hunger strike by former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairman Lin I-hsiung (林義雄) enters its fourth day today, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) is to meet with DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) to address Lin’s demands.
The 73-year-old Lin began his hunger strike on Tuesday demanding that the Ma administration respect the will of the people and halt construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮).
Insisting that the decades-long issue should be put to a vote in a referendum in accordance with the Referendum Act (公民投票法), Ma has brushed off suggestions to resolve the crisis, including those proposed by several lawmakers from his own party, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
The Referendum Act has been dubbed a “birdcage” law that is structurally flawed so that any referendum is doomed to fail, mainly because of its high thresholds.
Premier Jiang Yi-huah (江宜樺) met with KMT lawmakers at 5pm yesterday to ensure the lawmakers toe the party line, ahead of a meeting of the legislative plenary session today in which the DPP plans to table a statute that would allow a referendum on the plant to be decided by a simple majority vote.
After two-and-a-half hours of discussions, Jiang convinced some KMT lawmakers, who had earlier advised the government to respond positively to the demands made by Lin and the DPP to end Lin’s hunger strike, to change their positions.
The two conclusions reached at the meeting strictly followed what Ma and Jiang proposed.
First, the government will proceed with construction of the plant and ongoing safety checks and tests, but it will not install fuel rods and will not activate the plant until a referendum is held to decide whether it can be put into operation.
Second, all KMT lawmakers are required to attend the legislative meeting today to block the DPP’s plans to pass the special statute, or else they will face party discipline.
Earlier yesterday, KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) told a group of reporters that he was against the idea of putting the issue to a referendum.
Lin said at the time that he would suggest that the legislature pass a resolution allowing the Executive Yuan to announce, without having to hold a referendum, that the construction of the plant will continue to completion and safety checks and tests will be performed, but the plant will not be activated.
KMT Legislator Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) had said that the Executive Yuan should announce a halt to the construction of the plant immediately after the legislature adopts a resolution to support its proposed plan to scrap the facility.
KMT lawmakers Alex Tsai (蔡正元), Su Ching-chuan (蘇清泉) and Chiang Hui-chen (江惠貞), among others, who had floated other proposals, did not force their ideas through at the meeting.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
RSS