President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday emphasized unity as he met with the leaders of the nation’s five branches of government at the Presidential Office in Taipei to discuss national policies.
Lai exercised his constitutional power to call the meeting, hoping to encourage cross-party and intergovernmental cooperation in the face of severe political and economic challenges.
Lai gave a speech emphasizing unity and presented the leaders with gifts before the closed-door meeting began.
Photo: screen grab from the Presidential Office’s Flickr page
“The world faces severe challenges due to geopolitical shocks, the restructuring of supply chains and the rapid development of emerging technologies like artificial intelligence,” Lai said. “Taiwan faces threats from China’s diplomatic and military intimidation, and ‘united front’ infiltration.”
“In the face of these challenges, Taiwan must unite,” he said, adding this was the only way to strengthen Taiwan’s national defense, economy and societal resilience.
He compared the five branches of government to five fingers, each with its own function, but only having strength when working together.
Through the meeting, the five branches can establish “a platform for communication, clarify constitutional boundaries, unite the nation, resolve disputes and jointly seek solutions to problems,” Lai said. “Whether facing external storms or internal disputes, we will firmly and unwaveringly move the nation forward.”
Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) in a post-meeting news conference said that the attendees from the government branches all mentioned the difficulties in carrying out their duties and daily operations due to budget freezes and cancelations by the Legislative Yuan.
Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) expressed the hope that the Executive Yuan would not request reconsiderations, but address problems with follow-up increases or decreases of the budget, Pan said.
Lai has asked Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) and Han to conduct interagency negotiations, so the Executive Yuan and the Legislative Yuan could try to resolve the budget issue in a feasible way, he said.
Asked whether the Executive Yuan had promised not to request a reconsideration by the legislature, Pan said that Lai expected to resolve the issues through negotiations before calculating the government’s budget.
Given Han’s wisdom, vision and rich experience in the legislature, he must be able to achieve consensus among the governing and opposition parties to create a win-win result, Pan said.
Presidential Office Deputy Secretary-General Xavier Chang (張惇涵) said that Cho and Han did not settle on “a solution that rules out reconsiderations,” but they agreed with Lai’s proposal to conduct negotiations between the Cabinet and the legislature to find a solution.
Asked about the opposition’s suggestion that negotiations among leaders of the governing and opposition parties should first be held, Pan said the budget issue would for now be handled by the Executive Yuan, Legislative Yuan, Control Yuan, Judicial Yuan and Examination Yuan.
Whether to start a dialogue among party leaders depends on future developments, he said, adding the issue was not mentioned at the meeting.
Asked whether interagency negotiations would be normalized, Pan cited Lai as saying that the meeting was convened with the authority granted by the Constitution to the president to gather the leaders to discuss national policies.
Whether it is called an interagency negotiation or national policy discussion, the common purpose is to resolve problems for the good of Taiwan, Pan said.
MILITARY BOOST: The procurement was planned after Washington recommended that Taiwan increase its stock of air defense missiles, a defense official said yesterday Taiwan is planning to order an additional four PAC-3 MSE systems and up to 500 missiles in response to an increasing number of missile sites on China’s east coast, a defense official said yesterday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the proposed order would be placed using the defense procurement special budget, adding that about NT$1 trillion (US$32,88 billion) has been allocated for the budget. The proposed acquisition would include launchers, missiles, and a lower tier air and missile defense radar system, they said The procurement was planned after the US military recommended that Taiwan increase
POLITICAL AGENDA: Beijing’s cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival events are part of a ‘cultural united front’ aimed at promoting unification with Taiwan, academics said Local authorities in China have been inviting Taiwanese to participate in cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations centered around ideals of “family and nation,” a move Taiwanese academics said politicizes the holiday to promote the idea of “one family” across the Taiwan Strait. Sources said that China’s Fujian Provincial Government is organizing about 20 cross-strait-themed events in cities including Quanzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Zhangzhou. In Zhangzhou, a festival scheduled for Wednesday is to showcase Minnan-language songs and budaixi (布袋戲) glove puppetry to highlight cultural similarities between Taiwan and the region. Elsewhere, Jiangsu Province is hosting more than 10 similar celebrations in Taizhou, Changzhou, Suzhou,
COGNITIVE WARFARE: Chinese fishing boats transmitting fake identification signals are meant to test Taiwan’s responses to different kinds of perceived incursions, a report said Chinese vessels are transmitting fake signals in Taiwan’s waters as a form of cognitive warfare, testing Taipei’s responses to various types of incursions, a report by the Institute for the Study of War said on Friday. Several Chinese fishing vessels transmitted fake automatic identification system (AIS) signals in Taiwan’s waters last month, with one mimicking a Russian warship and another impersonating a Chinese law enforcement vessel, the report said. Citing data from Starboard Maritime Intelligence, the report said that throughout August and last month, the Chinese fishing boat Minshiyu 06718 (閩獅漁06718) sailed through the Taiwan Strait while intermittently transmitting its own AIS
CHINESE INFILTRATION: Medical logistics is a lifeline during wartime and the reported CCP links of a major logistics company present a national security threat, an expert said The government would bolster its security check system to prevent China from infiltrating the nation’s medical cold chain, a national security official said yesterday. The official, who wished to stay anonymous, made the remarks after the Chinese-language magazine Mirror Media (鏡周刊) reported that Pharma Logistics (嘉里醫藥物流) is in charge of the medical logistics of about half of the nation’s major hospitals, including National Taiwan University Hospital and Taipei Veterans General Hospital. The company’s parent, Kerry TJ Logistics Co (嘉里大榮物流), is associated with the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the
RSS