The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday welcomed the announcement of US support for Taiwan’s participation in the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
US President Barack Obama on Friday signed into law H.R. 1151, which commits Washington to full support of Taiwan’s membership of organizations where statehood is not a requirement.
DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) was informed during his visit to the US in June that the US House of Representatives and the Senate were expected to pass the resolution supporting Taiwan’s bid for ICAO observer status, DPP Department of International Affairs director Liu Shih-chung (劉世忠) said yesterday
Joseph Wu (吳釗燮), the party’s US representative, is visiting Washington and would thank the US administrative and legislative branches for their efforts, Liu said.
The US administration has publicly supported Taiwan’s participation in the ICAO and would continue to do so, the DPP said.
Meanwhile, the DPP legislative caucus said yesterday that it has not yet discussed its priorities for the second extra legislative session, which is scheduled to begin on July 29, because the party opposes the session.
DPP caucus Secretary-General Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) said extra sessions “should not have become a normalized practice in the first place” and criticized the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for “always trying to pass controversial legislation in the extra sessions rather than in regular ones.”
Gao said the DPP caucus would meet tomorrow to discuss strategy as the KMT caucus has placed the cross-strait service trade pact and a proposed referendum on the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in Gongliao (貢寮), New Taipei City (新北市), on the agenda for the session.
DPP caucus convener Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) had previously said “things would get bloody” if the KMT insists on pushing through its agenda in the second extra session, adding that the DPP believes that the service trade pact should not be voted on as a package, and should be reviewed in sections.
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
A Taiwanese woman on Sunday was injured by a small piece of masonry that fell from the dome of St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican during a visit to the church. The tourist, identified as Hsu Yun-chen (許芸禎), was struck on the forehead while she and her tour group were near Michelangelo’s sculpture Pieta. Hsu was rushed to a hospital, the group’s guide to the church, Fu Jing, said yesterday. Hsu was found not to have serious injuries and was able to continue her tour as scheduled, Fu added. Mathew Lee (李世明), Taiwan’s recently retired ambassador to the Holy See, said he met
A BETRAYAL? It is none of the ministry’s business if those entertainers love China, but ‘you cannot agree to wipe out your own country,’ the MAC minister said Taiwanese entertainers in China would have their Taiwanese citizenship revoked if they are holding Chinese citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said. Several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑) and Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜), earlier this month on their Weibo (微博) accounts shared a picture saying that Taiwan would be “returned” to China, with tags such as “Taiwan, Province of China” or “Adhere to the ‘one China’ principle.” The MAC would investigate whether those Taiwanese entertainers have Chinese IDs and added that it would revoke their Taiwanese citizenship if they did, Chiu told the Chinese-language Liberty Times (sister paper
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
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