There have been no changes to the Executive Yuan’s plan to implement military pension reform alongside cuts for civil servants and public-school teachers that were approved by the Legislative Yuan on July 1 last year, Premier William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday.
Lai made the remark at a legislative question-and-answer session after New Power Party Legislator Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) asked him whether a delay in finalizing the Cabinet’s proposal on military pension cuts, originally due on Thursday, meant that the scheduled July 1 implementation would also be postponed.
Lai on Tuesday said that the Cabinet, following discussions with the Democratic Progressive Party legislative caucus on Monday, decided to postpone its processing of a military pension reform bill, as there were still issues to be resolved.
Photo: Wang Yi-sung, Taipei Times
The Cabinet would still tender its proposal on pension cuts for military retirees during the current legislative session as scheduled, he said at yesterday’s session, adding that there have been no changes to plans to implement pension cuts for military retirees, civil servants and public-school teachers on July 1.
Earlier yesterday, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers circled the podium where Lai was scheduled to deliver his administrative report and shouted slogans calling for the pension cuts to be halted, prompting Legislative Speaker Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) to call a 10-minute recess.
They later cornered Lai with their placards, but soon dispersed to grant him access to the podium.
During his report, Lai wished retired colonel Miao Te-sheng (繆德生) — who sustained a serious head injury and fractured ribs in a protest on Tuesday morning against the government’s plan to cut military pensions — a speedy recovery, saying that the Cabinet would devise a system that best serves the interests of military personnel.
The pension system for military retirees would be adjusted in a way that is conducive to long-term service while ensuring a reasonable quality of life for them on the condition that their pensions would not undermine the nation’s finances, he said.
As the specifics of the system require further discussions, the Cabinet would continue communicating with the public in a bid to introduce a sustainable pension system, he added.
Lai provided an overview of the Cabinet’s policies to address the “five shortages” faced by the nation’s industries — a shortfall of water, electricity, land, blue-collar and white-collar workers — as well as implementing the Forward-looking Infrastructure Development Program and the Long-term Care Services Program 2.0, improving air quality, expediting the development of “green” energy sources, upgrading investment conditions for innovative sectors, nurturing the high-tech industry, promoting urban renewal and cracking down on narcotics.
He said his team would this year focus on improving people’s livelihoods, making preschool education more affordable in a bid to address the nation’s low birthrate and recruiting skilled foreign workers by building a friendly society and introducing competitive work conditions.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods