The People First Party (PFP) will renew its push for a "cross-strait peace advancement bill" to counter President Chen Shui-bian's (
Under the PFP's proposal, a "peace advancement" committee would be set up under the Legislative Yuan to direct the government's cross-strait policies.
"We need the committee to keep Chen's personal domination over cross-strait policies in check," PFP caucus whip Hwang Yih-jiau (
The unification guidelines were adopted by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government in the early 1990s as its long-term blueprint for eventual unification with China, and the council was established to carry them out.
The current government under Chen has said that the guidelines violate the principle that the people should decide Taiwan's destiny, and should therefore be scrapped. The government has also slammed the PFP's proposed `peace bill,' which would write the "one China" principle into the nation's law, as a "by-law" of China's "Anti-Secession" Law.
With Chen appearing increasingly likely to ditch the council by the end of the month, the pro-unification pan-blue camp has continued to voice its opposition.
"The public's safety depends on stable cross-strait relations, which shouldn't be dominated by the president, who only cares about his party's interests," Hwang said.
In the wake of Chen's plan to abolish the council and guidelines, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) recently floated the idea that its new draft constitution for the nation would consider changes to the national flag, title, and territory.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus whip Pan Wei-kang (
PFP Legislator Chang Hsien-yao (
"The government should not draft a controversial constitution when US-Taiwan relations are so tense. The PFP will block such actions with all its strength, as they are no different from suicide by charcoal-burning," Chang said.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck off the coast of Hualien County in eastern Taiwan at 7pm yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The epicenter of the temblor was at sea, about 69.9km south of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 30.9km, it said. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake’s intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County’s Changbin Township (長濱), where it measured 5 on Taiwan’s seven-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 4 in Hualien, Nantou, Chiayi, Yunlin, Changhua and Miaoli counties, as well as
Credit departments of farmers’ and fishers’ associations blocked a total of more than NT$180 million (US$6.01 million) from being lost to scams last year, National Police Agency (NPA) data showed. The Agricultural Finance Agency (AFA) said last week that staff of farmers’ and fishers’ associations’ credit departments are required to implement fraud prevention measures when they serve clients at the counter. They would ask clients about personal financial management activities whenever they suspect there might be a fraud situation, and would immediately report the incident to local authorities, which would send police officers to the site to help, it said. NPA data showed
ENERGY RESILIENCE: Although Alaska is open for investments, Taiwan is sourcing its gas from the Middle East, and the sea routes carry risks, Ho Cheng-hui said US government officials’ high-profile reception of a Taiwanese representative at the Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference indicated the emergence of an Indo-Pacific energy resilience alliance, an academic said. Presidential Office Secretary-General Pan Men-an (潘孟安) attended the conference in Alaska on Thursday last week at the invitation of the US government. Pan visited oil and gas facilities with senior US officials, including US Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, US Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and US Senator Daniel Sullivan. Pan attending the conference on behalf of President William Lai (賴清德) shows a significant elevation in diplomatic representation,
The Taipei City Reserve Command yesterday initiated its first-ever 14-day recall of some of the city’s civilian service reservists, who are to undergo additional training on top of refresher courses. The command said that it rented sites in Neihu District (內湖), including the Taipei Tennis Center, for the duration of the camp to optimize tactical positioning and accommodate the size of the battalion of reservists. A battalion is made up of four companies of more than 200 reservists each, it said. Aside from shooting drills at a range in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), the remainder of the training would be at
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