To safeguard the nation's sovereignty and dignity, the Legislative Yuan should push for a ban on political leaders and retired government officials visiting China, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) said yesterday.
"We'd like to see the government restrict unauthorized people, such as political leaders and retired government officials, from conducting political exchanges with Chinese authorities until Beijing respects our sovereignty and abandons its intention to invade our territory," TSU caucus whip Lo Chih-ming (
Lo said that next Tuesday the party's caucus would move that the legislature request the Executive Yuan issue the ban. However, even if the proposal is approved, it would not be binding.
According to Article Nine of the Act Governing Relations Between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (
Lo said that legal requirements for a resolution were satisfied when China enacted the "Anti-Secession" Law. Compounding the problem are the planned visits of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Lien Chan (
Lo also voiced caucus opposition to Lien and Soong accepting the "1992 consensus" as the premise for their visits and using it as preconditions for political negotiations with the Chinese authorities.
Taiwanese were praised for their composure after a video filmed by Taiwanese tourists capturing the moment a magnitude 7.5 earthquake struck Japan’s Aomori Prefecture went viral on social media. The video shows a hotel room shaking violently amid Monday’s quake, with objects falling to the ground. Two Taiwanese began filming with their mobile phones, while two others held the sides of a TV to prevent it from falling. When the shaking stopped, the pair calmly took down the TV and laid it flat on a tatami mat, the video shows. The video also captured the group talking about the safety of their companions bathing
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically