Pan-blue lawmakers yesterday said they would not welcome a report by President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) to the legislature if he refuses to take questions after his speech.
Pan-green legislators countered that the president is not obligated by the Constitution to be questioned by lawmakers.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday confirmed that the Legislative Yuan had received a written request from the Presidential Office for the president to deliver a national report at the legislature.
Wang said that cross-party negotiations will be held on Thursday to decide whether to let the president deliver his report.
The report would touch on the ceasing of the National Unification Guidelines and the National Unification Council, and the president was not planning on being questioned by the legislature.
"If that is the case, why bother? I don't think he needs to come," People First Party (PFP) caucus whip Lu Hsueh-chang (呂學樟) said.
When the National Assembly still existed, the president, according to the Constitution, would accept questions from assembly members after he finished his report.
However, the Constitution does not say that the president must do the same with lawmakers.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus deputy secretary-general Tsai Chin-lung (
"If the president is planning to repeat the same thing, I don't think it's necessary," Tsai said.
Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) caucus whip David Huang (黃適卓) encouraged pan-blue lawmakers to endorse the TSU's call for a new constitution if they wanted the president to be required to take questions.
"By law, the president does not have to be questioned by the legislature. If our pan-blue friends feel that this is ridiculous, the only way to solve the problem would be to amend the Constitution or write a new one," Huang said.
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
‘JOINT SWORD’: Whatever President Lai says in his Double Ten speech, China would use it as a pretext to launch ‘punishment’ drills for his ‘separatist’ views, an official said China is likely to launch military drills this week near Taiwan, using President William Lai’s (賴清德) upcoming national day speech as a pretext to pressure the nation to accept its sovereignty claims, Taiwanese officials said. China in May launched “punishment” drills around Taiwan shortly after Lai’s inauguration, in what Beijing said was a response to “separatist acts,” sending heavily armed warplanes and staging mock attacks as state media denounced newly inaugurated Lai. The May drills were dubbed “Joint Sword — 2024A” and drew concerns from capitals, including Washington. Lai is to deliver a key speech on Thursday in front of the Presidential Office
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Taiwan was listed in 14th place among the world's wealthiest country in terms of GDP per capita, in the latest rankings released on Monday by Forbes magazine. Taiwan's GDP per capita was US$76,860, which put it at No. 14 on the list of the World's 100 Richest Countries this year, one spot above Hong Kong with US$75,130. The magazine's list of the richest countries in the world is compiled based on GDP per capita data, as estimated by the IMF. However, for a more precise measure of a nation's wealth, the magazine also considers purchasing power parity, which is a metric used to
RSS