An official of the planned Non-Partisan Solidarity Union (NSU), a new political party initiated by independent legislators, said yesterday the party will be formally inaugurated next Tuesday as scheduled.
NSU Secretary General Chen Chieh-ju (陳傑儒) made the remarks after a review committee of the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) raised questions about using the term "non-partisan" in the name of the new party.
Chen said that the party has been in the planning for some time, adding that if the MOI has any opinions about the NSU, the party is willing to communicate with the ministry.
The party will apply to and register with the MOI as scheduled, adding that "there is no plan to change the name," he said.
He said that the party has drafted a charter and is scheduled to form a 21-member central standing committee, with current legislators serving as the natural central standing committee members.
As to when Chang Po-ya (張博雅), chairwoman of the new party's preparatory committee, will become the party's chairwoman, he said that the party will not rule out the possibility of calling for an extraordinary central standing committee meeting to nominate her for the post.
Chang, a health minister during the latter part of the era of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) rule, mentioned earlier that the establishment of the NSU will effectively offer a middle-way choice for the people of Taiwan, who she said have long been divided into two camps.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
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