Legislator-elect Fu Kun-chi (傅?萁), who was re-elected to represent Hualien County in the Jan. 13 legislative elections, is to be the new Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus whip in the Legislative Yuan after KMT legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) withdrew from the race for the position.
The KMT, which won 52 seats in the 113-seat legislature in the elections, is scheduled to elect a chief convener and secretary-general for its new legislative caucus today.
Lai, a senior lawmaker who has represented Taipei’s eighth electoral district in the Legislative Yuan since 2005, registered to run for the KMT caucus’ top whip position, but wrote on social media on Sunday that he would withdraw from the race against Fu, his only rival.
Photo: CNA
He said he learned that some members of the new KMT caucus felt tormented over the election and were hoping that a new convener could be chosen through coordinated efforts so that “a painful vote would be avoided.”
As a potential vote could take away from the caucus’ need to focus on its monitoring of the incoming presidential administration of William Lai (賴清德) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Lai Shyh-bao said that nothing was more important than the internal unity of the party, which he called a “very vulnerable majority” in the new legislature.
Lai Shyh-bao’s decision means that Fu would assume the position as the KMT’s top caucus whip in the new legislature, to be inaugurated on Thursday.
Photo: CNA
In addition, Hung Mong-kai (洪孟楷) is to serve as secretary-general of the KMT’s new caucus and Lin Szu-ming (林思銘) is to be his deputy, after Lin decided not to run for the position of secretary-general.
Meanwhile, sources said that the DPP caucus yesterday decided on Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) as its caucus whip, Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) as its chief executive and Chuang Jui-hsiung (莊瑞雄) as its secretary-general.
Taiwan is to receive the first batch of Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 jets from the US late this month, a defense official said yesterday, after a year-long delay due to a logjam in US arms deliveries. Completing the NT$247.2 billion (US$7.69 billion) arms deal for 66 jets would make Taiwan the third nation in the world to receive factory-fresh advanced fighter jets of the same make and model, following Bahrain and Slovakia, the official said on condition of anonymity. F-16 Block 70/72 are newly manufactured F-16 jets built by Lockheed Martin to the standards of the F-16V upgrade package. Republic of China
Taiwan-Japan Travel Passes are available for use on public transit networks in the two countries, Taoyuan Metro Corp said yesterday, adding that discounts of up to 7 percent are available. Taoyuan Metro, the Taipei MRT and Japan’s Keisei Electric Railway teamed up to develop the pass. Taoyuan Metro operates the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport MRT Line, while Keisei Electric Railway offers express services between Tokyo’s Narita Airport, and the Keisei Ueno and Nippori stations in the Japanese capital, as well as between Narita and Haneda airports. The basic package comprises one one-way ticket on the Taoyuan MRT Line and one Skyliner ticket on
EVERYONE’S ISSUE: Kim said that during a visit to Taiwan, she asked what would happen if China attacked, and was told that the global economy would shut down Taiwan is critical to the global economy, and its defense is a “here and now” issue, US Representative Young Kim said during a roundtable talk on Taiwan-US relations on Friday. Kim, who serves on the US House of Representatives’ Foreign Affairs Committee, held a roundtable talk titled “Global Ties, Local Impact: Why Taiwan Matters for California,” at Santiago Canyon College in Orange County, California. “Despite its small size and long distance from us, Taiwan’s cultural and economic importance is felt across our communities,” Kim said during her opening remarks. Stanford University researcher and lecturer Lanhee Chen (陳仁宜), lawyer Lin Ching-chi
A pro-Russia hacker group has launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on the Taiwanese government in retaliation for President William Lai’s (賴清德) comments suggesting that China should have a territorial dispute with Russia, an information security company said today. The hacker group, NoName057, recently launched an HTTPs flood attack called “DDoSia” targeting Taiwanese government and financial units, Radware told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). Local tax bureaus in New Taipei City, Keelung, Hsinchu and Taoyuan were mentioned by the hackers. Only the Hsinchu Local Tax Bureau site appeared to be down earlier in the day, but was back
RSS