The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislative caucus is ceasing cooperation with Citizen’s Congress Watch, it said yesterday, calling the legislative watchdog biased because it only finds fault with the KMT and not other parties.
KMT caucus secretary-general Jessica Chen (陳玉珍) said that no matter what the KMT does, the group sees the party as doing something wrong.
Effective immediately, all 39 legislators in the caucus are to cease providing Citizen’s Congress Watch with any information, KMT caucus convener Alex Fai (費鴻泰) said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
After the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) pushed the fiscal budget to a second reading on Dec. 21 last year, Citizen’s Congress Watch focused on the KMT, and only after media criticism of the ruling party did the group comment on the DPP’s actions, Fai said.
The group also criticized the KMT for not attending a news conference to urge city and county councilors to make their assets more transparent, but the KMT was not even invited to the event, Fai said.
The Legislative Yuan should be nonpartisan, but Citizen’s Congress Watch is biased and looks at issues from the DPP perspective, he said, adding that the KMT would no longer cooperate with the legislative watchdog only for it to attack the party.
Chen said that Citizen’s Congress Watch was trying to create a cultural divide by portraying the KMT as dismissive of Hoklo (commonly known as Taiwanese) in discussing the party’s decision to reduce funding for Public Television Service’s Hoklo channel.
We cannot continue to provide information to a group that is no longer subjective and fair, Chen said, adding that the group cannot say, in good faith, that it truly represents the people.
Citizen’s Congress Watch executive director Leo Chang (張宏林) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday that it keeps legislators in check regardless of their party affiliation.
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
AMENDMENT: Contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau must be reported, and failure to comply could result in a prison sentence, the proposal stated The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) yesterday voted against a proposed bill by Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers that would require elected officials to seek approval before visiting China. DPP Legislator Puma Shen’s (沈伯洋) proposed amendments to the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), stipulate that contact with certain individuals in China, Hong Kong and Macau should be reported, while failure to comply would be punishable by prison sentences of up to three years, alongside a fine of NT$10 million (US$309,041). Fifty-six voted with the TPP in opposition
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai