The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus yesterday said it would not support the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) candidates for legislative speaker and deputy speaker.
"We will either propose our own candidates and vote for them or simply not vote," DPP legislative caucus convener Ker Chien-ming (
Ker made his remarks during a press conference at the DPP legislative caucus office after a meeting yesterday morning.
He said the only consensus they reached was that the DPP would not support the KMT candidates. Whether the party would propose and vote for its own candidates or simply not take part in the election would be decided during another caucus meeting on Thursday.
Ker said that during the meeting, some DPP lawmakers had asked whether the party would support Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) in his reelection as legislative speaker, but lawmakers could not come to a unanimous decision.
Ker also mentioned that although the KMT had said it would surrender four convener seats on 16 legislative committees to the DPP, these four seats would not help as the KMT would still control a majority on the four committees.
"Our focus will be on proposing legislation that is of high-value to a majority of the people so that our policies will not be ignored," Ker said. "That is how we are going to survive now that we only possess 27 seats in the legislature."
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS