The Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday rejected a local news report saying that its staff have been using the party’s caucus office in the Legislative Yuan as their working space, while confirming that it has made progress in finding new party headquarters.
The Chinese-language Mirror Media magazine reported that nearly 20 TPP party officials and staff have been “parasitizing” the party’s caucus office.
The magazine said it had received a tip-off that as the TPP’s workers are not employees of the Legislative Yuan, they do not have the work card required to enter the Legislative Yuan’s caucus office building, but the party provided a list of its staff to the building’s security and they were given permission to enter daily.
Photo courtesy of Taiwan People’s Party
The TPP staff who used the caucus office are from the party’s advertising department, and a video uploaded by the party on YouTube, in which an advertising department employee introduced the party’s secretary general, was filmed there, the magazine said.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), the TPP chairman, has often stressed the importance of financial discipline, but allowing the party’s workers to use the caucus office — for which the electricity and phone bills are paid by the Legislative Yuan — seemed to be taking advantage of the government, the report said.
TPP spokesman Tsai Chun-wei (蔡峻維) said that all the people who are working at the office support the TPP legislative caucus by quickly replying to public opinions and assisting its operations.
The party rejects the claim that it is a parasite in the Legislative Yuan, as that is inconsistent with the facts, he said.
The TPP has been searching for a bigger space for its headquarters since last year, but many landlords have concerns over renting to political parties, Tsai said, adding that some progress has been made in finding a property, and the details would be announced if further progress is made.
A total of 400 foreign “high- level” professionals have been naturalized as Republic of China (Taiwan) citizens over the past decade as the government has eased nationality rules to attract talent from a wider range of fields, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The 400th high-level professional, who works in the electronics industry, was approved for ROC citizenship on Aug. 26, the MOI said. The MOI quoted the newly naturalized citizen as saying that Taiwan is a leader in fields such as semiconductors, electronics manufacturing, artificial intelligence development and energy technology. He also said
China has warned that it could cancel a planned US-China leaders’ summit if Washington approves new arms sales to Taiwan, a Japanese media outlet quoted sources as saying yesterday. US President Donald Trump, “apparently eager to showcase some diplomatic achievements ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections, places great importance on holding the summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平),” Japan’s Kyodo News reported. “While preparing for Xi’s upcoming trip, China has restated its position that the Taiwan issue is a ‘red line’ in bilateral relations,” the report said. The report said that when Xi met with Trump in Beijing in May, Xi said
RARE PEEK: The footage released showed one of the bears staying in a cave for as long as 70 days, providing the first record of Formosan black bear’s overwintering The Forestry and Nature Conservation Agency yesterday released tracking records of released Formosan black bears for the first time, showing that they get much closer to human settlements than previously thought. The agency said it had captured two bears, Da Qu-ali (達古阿里) and Aziman (阿里曼), in indigenous villages in Hualien County and began to track them with a camera-mounted satellite collar after releasing them back into the wild. The results confirmed that the bears have moved from deep mountain areas into lowland hills closer to human communities, leading to an increase in human-bear conflicts, it said. The agency has introduced artificial intelligence-assisted early
DIPLOMATIC TOUR: Chinese President Xi Jinping began a series of overseas visits last month to Kyrgyzstan, Egypt and India, aimed at securing leverage, an official said Recent Chinese diplomatic and military moves are aimed at creating pressure ahead of a planned meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump, National Security Council adviser Huang Chung-yen (黃重諺) said. Trump when visiting China in May extended an invitation to Xi to visit Washington on Sept. 24. China is yet to officially announce plans for Xi’s visit to the US. In an interview with the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) on Thursday, Huang said Xi’s overseas visits, China’s “gray zone” activities along the First Island Chain and efforts to expand its trade surplus with the
RSS