Issues pertaining to people's live-lihoods will be among the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) campaign focuses in the legislative elections, KMT Chairman Lien Chan (連戰) said yesterday.
Saying that constitutional reform will be an important issue in the party's campaigns for the December poll, Lien added that other issues will pertain to people's welfare, so ethnic relations and economic and national development would be among the party's concerns as well.
Lien's comments were made yesterday before he met with a group of nominees at the party's headquarters. The party is still finalizing its campaign strategy, he said.
He also commented on some Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) campaign priorities revealed by the DPP's information and culture chief, Cheng Wen-tsan (
Stating that both he and Soong are members of opposition parties, Lien said that he had never heard of a democratic country wanting to terminate its opposition parties.
He said that if President Chen Shui-bian (
"As everyone can clearly see that the DPP administration is incompetent and corrupted, what should be terminated is the incompetent and corrupted government," he said.
KMT spokesman Alex Tsai (
Noting the KMT's response, Cheng later yesterday clarified his remarks, saying that "terminating Lien-Soong does not mean terminating opposition parties, as opposition parties play a valuable role."
By "terminating the Lien-Soong system," Cheng said he referred to a wish to end Lien's and Soong's irrational thinking as it was displayed in the protests after the presidential election led by the two men.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
PROXIMITY: Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location, the Executive Yuan official said Taiwan plans to boost cooperation with the Czech Republic in semiconductor development due to Prague’s pivotal role in the European IC industry, Executive Yuan Secretary-General Kung Ming-hsin (龔明鑫) said. With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) building a wafer fab in the German city of Dresden, a Germany-Czech Republic-Poland “silicon triangle” is forming, Kung said in a media interview on the weekend after returning from a visit to Prague. “Prague is closer to Dresden than Berlin is, so Taiwanese firms are expected to take advantage of the Czech capital’s location,” he said. “Taiwan and Prague have already launched direct flights and it is