The People First Party (PFP) is in no hurry to hold talks with the KMT on cooperation in the year-end elections, PFP officials said yesterday.
They made the remarks after KMT Spokesman Jason Hu (
PFP officials said that it would be rushing too much to hold discussions by the end of February, adding that there is no need to move so fast.
PFP heavyweight Liu Sung-fan (
Liu also said that both sides continue to have contacts and that they realize there are differences on issues, such as the nominees and their quota, that need to be worked out.
PFP officials also said that a prerequisite to a meeting between the chiefs of the KMT and PFP is that "there is an agenda that both sides can sit down to talk about."
They said that if there is such an agenda, then both sides could meet to discuss how to solve problems or to study how to deal with the new situation.
Chung Jung-chi (
Chung suggested that it may be a good idea that the two meet on a more natural occasion, such as Soong visiting Lien next month to congratulate him for winning the party chairmanship. Lien is expected to win uncontested in the first direct election scheduled for March 24 of the KMT chief in the party's 106-year history.
The media has reported widely about the possibility of cooperation between the two parties in the wake of the KMT's goodwill gesture last week when it announced that it would no longer pursue embezzlement charges against PFP Chairman James Soong (
The KMT said that although it thinks the prosecutor's investigation was flawed, the party has decided not to pursue the case any further for the sake of reconciliation with Soong.
The case arose after the discovery of a huge amount of cash in a secret bank account controlled by Soong, a former KMT secretary-general, which he claimed was put in his charge by then-KMT chairman Lee Teng-hui (
The case was believed to have dealt a serious blow to Soong's presidential campaign. Until the case came to light, Soong, who ran as an independent in the campaign, had maintained a convincing lead over all other presidential candidates.
Soong, who finished second in the election, formed the PFP immediately after the election.
Meanwhile Lien, the KMT's presidential candidate, finished a distant third in the election.
A Chinese aircraft carrier group entered Japan’s economic waters over the weekend, before exiting to conduct drills involving fighter jets, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said yesterday. The Liaoning aircraft carrier, two missile destroyers and one fast combat supply ship sailed about 300km southwest of Japan’s easternmost island of Minamitori on Saturday, a ministry statement said. It was the first time a Chinese aircraft carrier had entered that part of Japan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), a ministry spokesman said. “We think the Chinese military is trying to improve its operational capability and ability to conduct operations in distant areas,” the spokesman said. China’s growing
Nine retired generals from Taiwan, Japan and the US have been invited to participate in a tabletop exercise hosted by the Taipei School of Economics and Political Science Foundation tomorrow and Wednesday that simulates a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan in 2030, the foundation said yesterday. The five retired Taiwanese generals would include retired admiral Lee Hsi-min (李喜明), joined by retired US Navy admiral Michael Mullen and former chief of staff of the Japan Self-Defense Forces general Shigeru Iwasaki, it said. The simulation aims to offer strategic insights into regional security and peace in the Taiwan Strait, it added. Foundation chair Huang Huang-hsiung
PUBLIC WARNING: The two students had been tricked into going to Hong Kong for a ‘high-paying’ job, which sent them to a scam center in Cambodia Police warned the public not to trust job advertisements touting high pay abroad following the return of two college students over the weekend who had been trafficked and forced to work at a cyberscam center in Cambodia. The two victims, surnamed Lee (李), 18, and Lin (林), 19, were interviewed by police after landing in Taiwan on Saturday. Taichung’s Chingshui Police Precinct said in a statement yesterday that the two students are good friends, and Lin had suspended her studies after seeing the ad promising good pay to work in Hong Kong. Lee’s grandfather on Thursday reported to police that Lee had sent
BUILDUP: US General Dan Caine said Chinese military maneuvers are not routine exercises, but instead are ‘rehearsals for a forced unification’ with Taiwan China poses an increasingly aggressive threat to the US and deterring Beijing is the Pentagon’s top regional priority amid its rapid military buildup and invasion drills near Taiwan, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Tuesday. “Our pacing threat is communist China,” Hegseth told the US House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense during an oversight hearing with US General Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “Beijing is preparing for war in the Indo-Pacific as part of its broader strategy to dominate that region and then the world,” Hegseth said, adding that if it succeeds, it could derail
RSS