Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) yesterday called on Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) to broaden election and policy collaboration at a summit of the two party leaders in New Taipei City.
The KMT and TPP over the past year have deepened their collaboration from elections to the local level in a milestone of the nation’s democratic development, Cheng told a news conference.
The two parties should continue working together in elections for commissioners, mayors and local government councils to avoid competition that benefits the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), she said.
Photo: Wang Yi-song, Taipei Times
The opposition’s collaboration should be directed with an eye to aligning politics with the wishes of the public, which means the most immediately popular candidate should not necessarily obtain the leadership’s backing, Cheng said.
The KMT-TPP alliance’s main challenge is to win the local elections next year to ensure the continued survival of core democratic values and promote the opposition’s policies, she said.
The opposition parties must carve out a new path for their alliance by recognizing that their responsibility takes precedence over self-interest and that missteps of the past are not repeated.
Cheng said that she had little previous dealings with Huang, but is confident that the two share a common vision and belief about the future of the coalition.
The KMT and TPP’s collaboration would have to take a unique form, as Taiwan’s system of government is not fully presidential or parliamentary, she said, apparently referring to Huang’s comments suggesting the opposition strive to form coalition governments.
Asked whether the two parties have achieved a consensus regarding their China policy, Huang said that establishing foundational values and objectives would be more important than policy.
The DPP’s stance on Taiwanese independence is less important than finding ways to truly defend Taiwan’s way of life, Huang said.
Additional reporting by Shi Hsiao-kuang and Lin Che-yuan
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
RSS