The Cabinet yesterday said that Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) would not countersign three legal amendments passed this year by the opposition-controlled legislature, citing what he claimed were flaws in their constitutionality.
The amendments, passed with the support of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People's Party (TPP), were made in January to the Act Governing the Settlement of Ill-gotten Properties by Political Parties and Their Affiliate Organizations (政黨及其附隨組織不當取得財產處理條例), the Satellite Broadcasting Act (衛星廣播電視法) and the Organic Law of the Legislative Yuan (立法院組織法).
Photo courtesy of the Executive Yuan
Based on the Cabinet's interpretation, Cho's refusal to countersign the laws effectively means the revisions would not be enacted.
The revision to the ill-gotten properties act seeks to reverse a 2022 designation of the China Youth Corps as a KMT affiliate during Taiwan's authoritarian era, contravening a 2023 constitutional interpretation, Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) said in a statement on Wednesday.
The amendment to the Satellite Broadcasting Act allows channels to continue broadcasting in their original slots during administrative lawsuits and requires authorities to provide remedies if a channel has been reassigned.
The amendment is "case specific" and therefore represents an "unreasonable differential treatment" that is "unfair" for other TV news channels, Lee said.
The changes have been dubbed the "CTi TV clause" by critics who say they could pave the way for CTi News to regain its license after it was taken off the air in December 2020, when its license was not renewed by the National Communications Commission (NCC).
The broadcasting regulator rejected CTi News' license renewal application, citing "repeated rule violations" and "a failure of its internal discipline and control mechanisms."
CTi TV, a company under the Want Want Group, later entered into an administrative lawsuit with the NCC.
The proceedings are still ongoing.
The amendment to the Organic Law of the Legislative Yuan, reclassified public funds previously earmarked as salary payments to lawmakers' aides as "subsidies" to lawmakers, and set the amount at five times a lawmaker's annual remuneration.
The amendment would create a loophole that could encourage lawmakers to pocket their aides' salaries, Lee said.
It would also increase the financial burden on the central government without identifying funding to offset the expected rise in expenditure, Lee said, claiming this was unconstitutional.
Cho's decision drew strong criticism from the KMT, which in a statement accused the premier of trampling on the separation of powers and usurping the power of the courts to determine whether a law is constitutional.
In its statement, the TPP caucus targeted President William Lai (賴清德), who it said bears the ultimate responsibility for his administration's "contempt for the law."
This is not the first time Cho has declined to countersign a bill passed by the legislature over what he claims to be constitutional concerns.
In December, Cho declined to sign a legal amendment pushed through by the opposition parties that would increase the share of tax revenues allocated for local governments.
That was the first time a premier had ever refused to countersign a law passed by the legislature in the history of the Republic of China.
Last month, he also declined to countersign an opposition-backed amendment that directed the relocation of 50 households in a veteran village in Taipei to a Ministry of National Defense housing project.
There is also an instance in which — although Cho and Lai signed bills into law — the government still refused to implement them.
The Cabinet has also failed to earmark funds for pension increases for police officers and firefighters, as well as salary raises for active-duty military personnel, as required by legislation passed by the legislature in the central government's general budget proposal for this year, even though the legislation had been promulgated.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The next minimum wage hike is expected to exceed NT$30,000, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday during an award ceremony honoring “model workers,” including migrant workers, at the Presidential Office ahead of Workers’ Day today. Lai said he wished to thank the awardees on behalf of the nation and extend his most sincere respect for their hard work, on which Taiwan’s prosperity has been built. Lai specifically thanked 10 migrant workers selected for the award, saying that although they left their home countries to further their own goals, their efforts have benefited Taiwan as well. The nation’s industrial sector and small businesses lay
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS