Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday held a livestreamed opposition leaders’ summit to discuss major national issues, including political reform, recall campaigns and the economic challenges posed by US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs.
On the issue of whether to push for a no-confidence vote against the Cabinet, Chu said Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) is merely a shield and serves at President William Lai’s (賴清德) pleasure, adding that “Lai the dictator” needs to “feel remorse and change.”
The KMT’s stance is that no display of people’s power is off the table, including a vote of no confidence, recall or impeachment, he said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
The party has an ordered strategy to remove Lai and is not targeting merely the Cabinet, he added.
Huang said that dismissing the Cabinet “will not save Taiwan,” or stop Lai who “wants to become an autocrat.”
The TPP will support KMT lawmakers facing the threat of recalls, which he said was led by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
It will not allow the DPP to revert the nation to single-party dictatorship through indiscriminate recall campaigns, he added.
The DPP government must be denied a legislative majority since it is “already doing whatever it wants,” despite being a minority in the legislature, he said.
Asked whether the KMT and the TPP share common goals and the extent to which the two parties can cooperate, Chu said the two parties have distinct agenda and policy goals that allow room for collaboration at the legislative and local level.
The two also discussed the economic challenges posed by Trump’s tariffs.
In response to US tariff threats, Lai announced plans to increase investment in the US, and his administration endorsed an additional US$100 billion investment in the US pledged last month by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), but that has not helped exempt Taiwan from Trump’s tariffs, Chu said.
With big tech companies, including TSMC, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) and Wistron Corp (緯創), teaming up with Nvidia to invest US$500 billion to produce artificial intelligence servers, the question for the Lai administration is: “What are we getting in return?” Chu said.
Huang said the DPP has yet to put forward an impact assessment report on the tariffs since Trump announced them.
The opposition would create an impact assessment platform comprising academics, former economic officials, industry representatives and local government heads to gauge the impact of the US tariffs over the next six months, he said.
Government negotiations with the US on tariffs should not result in deals that compare unfavorably with those of Taiwan’s main trade rivals, such as Japan and South Korea, or the ramifications would be “catastrophic” for Taiwan’s industrial sector, he said.
Taiwan should sign a free-trade agreement with the US to mitigate the negative impact of tariffs, he added.
Later yesterday, DPP spokesman Justin Wu (吳崢) accused the opposition of “rumormongering” by implying that the DPP had not adopted a more proactive stance in addressing the tariff issue.
Lai and Cho have held a series of exchanges with representatives from various sectors since Trump announced the tariffs.
It is “regrettable” that the opposition has resorted to a “mudslinging” political stunt in the name of unity and public interest, Wu said.
Taiwan would welcome the return of Honduras as a diplomatic ally if its next president decides to make such a move, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. “Of course, we would welcome Honduras if they want to restore diplomatic ties with Taiwan after their elections,” Lin said at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, when asked to comment on statements made by two of the three Honduran presidential candidates during the presidential campaign in the Central American country. Taiwan is paying close attention to the region as a whole in the wake of a
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), spokeswoman Yang Chih-yu (楊智伃) and Legislator Hsieh Lung-chieh (謝龍介) would be summoned by police for questioning for leading an illegal assembly on Thursday evening last week, Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) said today. The three KMT officials led an assembly outside the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office, a restricted area where public assembly is not allowed, protesting the questioning of several KMT staff and searches of KMT headquarters and offices in a recall petition forgery case. Chu, Yang and Hsieh are all suspected of contravening the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) by holding
PRAISE: Japanese visitor Takashi Kubota said the Taiwanese temple architecture images showcased in the AI Art Gallery were the most impressive displays he saw Taiwan does not have an official pavilion at the World Expo in Osaka, Japan, because of its diplomatic predicament, but the government-backed Tech World pavilion is drawing interest with its unique recreations of works by Taiwanese artists. The pavilion features an artificial intelligence (AI)-based art gallery showcasing works of famous Taiwanese artists from the Japanese colonial period using innovative technologies. Among its main simulated displays are Eastern gouache paintings by Chen Chin (陳進), Lin Yu-shan (林玉山) and Kuo Hsueh-hu (郭雪湖), who were the three young Taiwanese painters selected for the East Asian Painting exhibition in 1927. Gouache is a water-based
President William Lai (賴清德) has appointed former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) to attend the late Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican City on Saturday on his behalf, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today. The Holy See announced Francis’ funeral would take place on Saturday at 10am in St Peter’s Square. The ministry expressed condolences over Francis’ passing and said that Chen would represent Taiwan at the funeral and offer condolences in person. Taiwan and the Vatican have a long-standing and close diplomatic relationship, the ministry said. Both sides agreed to have Chen represent Taiwan at the funeral, given his Catholic identity and
RSS