The People First Party (PFP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) will work together to promote a single candidate for Nantou County commissioner this year, the PFP's hopeful for the post said yesterday.
The PFP's Nantou County commissioner nominee, PFP Legislative Caucus Whip Chen Chih-pin (
Survey
With a number of party old guard serving as witnesses, Chen said that he had met with Lee on Saturday and agreed to hire a survey company to run polls in Nantou County next month, and have the winner become the pan-blue camp's candidate for the area.
The comments from Chen yesterday came as a surprise, given recent remarks from PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) identifying Nantou County as one place where the party will not back down in the face of potentially stronger KMT candidates.
In comments last week, Soong said that while he acknowledges that the PFP and KMT should cooperate in the year-end elections given their overlapping support bases, the PFP will not give way in regions it feels confident of its candidates' success, such as Nantou County and Keelung City.
Done deal
"Both sides already have an agreement, that whoever loses [in the polls] will back out of the race and support the other pan-blue candidate," Chen said, adding that he is confident of his personal success, given that he is better known.
When reporting the agreement to PFP Secretary-General Chin Chin-sheng (
In reaction however, Chen said he did not think that the KMT would manipulate the polls.
Eight Chinese naval vessels and 24 military aircraft were detected crossing the median line of the Taiwan Strait between 6am yesterday and 6am today, the Ministry of National Defense said this morning. The aircraft entered Taiwan’s northern, central, southwestern and eastern air defense identification zones, the ministry said. The armed forces responded with mission aircraft, naval vessels and shore-based missile systems to closely monitor the situation, it added. Eight naval vessels, one official ship and 36 aircraft sorties were spotted in total, the ministry said.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
Taiwan successfully defended its women’s 540 kilogram title and won its first-ever men’s 640 kg title at the 2026 World Indoor Tug of War Championships in Taipei yesterday. In the women’s event, Taiwan’s eight-person squad reached the final following a round-robin preliminary round and semifinals featuring teams from Ukraine, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, the Basque Country and South Korea. In the finals, they swept the Basque team 2-0, giving the team composed mainly of National Taiwan Normal University students and graduates its second championship in a row, and its fourth in five years. Team captain