Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew (李光耀) continued to meet with high-level political figures yesterday, including KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) and People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
Lee met with Lien and Soong separately to discuss regional security issues in the Asia-Pacific area.
Lien, accompanied by KMT spokesman Jason Hu (
"We chatted like old friends without any pressures or preset agenda. And there was a wide range of topics" to discuss, Hu said after Lee's meeting with Lien.
"Mr Lien is paying courtesy to Lee as a host ... I think it is not worthwhile to interpret what they talked about privately."
Like other politicians who have met with Lee, Hu declined to reveal details of Lien's meeting with the Singaporean minister.
Later in the evening, Soong held a closed-door meeting with Lee at the Westin Resort in Ta Shee. Before the private conference, Soong told reporters he wished to share views on the Asia-Pacific region, and "help our international allies understand precisely what Taiwan's people" think.
But Soong said he couldn't reveal the content of the talks, though if there was anything newsworthy to report from their discussions, he would find the appropriate time and way to disclose it.
In addition to Lien and Soong, Nita Ing (
Ing is a former member of the National Policy Advisory Committee (國政顧問團), which was headed by Academia Sinica President Lee Yuan-tze (李遠哲) and established by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) during the presidential election.
Political analysts speculate that Ing was meeting Lee Kuan Yew on Lee Yuan-tseh's behalf to talk about cross-strait relations. Lee Yuan-tseh is expected to convene early next month the second meeting of an inter-party task force on cross-strait relations.
News reports also said that a meeting between the two Lees was possible today.
Meanwhile, media continued to press former President Lee Ting-hui (
But the former KMT president remained tight-lipped and angrily refused to give any comments.
Lee Kuan Yew is scheduled to return to Singapore today, concluding his four-day visit to Taiwan.
RESILIENCE: Deepening bilateral cooperation would extend the peace sustained over the 45 years since the Taiwan Relations Act, Greene said Taiwan-US relations are built on deep economic ties and shared values, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday, adding that strengthening supply chain security in critical industries, enhancing societal resilience through cooperation and deepening partnerships are key to ensuring peace and stability for Taiwan in the years ahead. Greene made the remarks at the National Security Youth Forum, organized by National Taiwan University’s National Security and Strategy Studies Institution in Taipei. In his address in Mandarin Chinese, Greene said the Taiwan-US relationship is built on deep economic ties and shared interests, and grows stronger through the enduring friendship between
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
RSS