Vice President Annette Lu (
"I have never joined the `first force' nor will I join the `second force,' not to mention the `third force,'" she said. "It has never crossed my mind. It has never even appeared in my dreams."
Lu was responding to speculation that former president Lee Teng-hui (
Lu made the remarks during a question-and-answer session during a tea party for the Presidential Office's press corps.
She said that some media outlets would fabricate news to boost their circulation or viewership. She singled out an inaccurate report that she and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (
A more recent example was the rumor that Lee wanted to see Wang and former premier Frank Hsieh (
Lu said she envied Wang in a way because he seemed to be a media favorite and he and Lee seemed to have very close ties.
Lu, who just recovered from an attack of shingles, said that Taiwan is sick and in a worse condition than she was in the past month.
She urged politicians to be less concerned about elections and personal or party considerations and more concerned about the people's livelihood. She also urged them to place more emphasis on honesty and sincerity.
Lu said that she and President Chen Shui-bian (
The remark created controversy since Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Yu Shyi-kun had previously said that the party would recommend that Chen dissolve the legislature if the lawmakers voted in favor of bringing down the government.
Regarding the delay in approval of the president's nominees for the Control Yuan, the vice president said she disliked the suggestion that heads of the four branches of government review the president's nominations, saying that it would violate the separation of powers.
The Control Yuan is the government watchdog agency.
Lu, who chaired the review committee for Control Yuan nominees, said she had expressed her opposition to the idea to both Chen and Wang.
She said she didn't think Chen would follow through on the suggestion because he had told her that he would consider re-nominating the candidates on two conditions: If the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) promised not to increase the legislature's confirmation threshold from a simple majority to two-thirds and the legislature returned his nomination list before he made new nominations.
Lu also confirmed that the president had asked her to visit a diplomatic ally in Africa on his behalf, although she didn't mention a name. Details of the trip are still being arranged, she said.
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EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
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