Independent presidential candidate James Soong (
Meeting with Soong yesterday, AIT chairman Richard Bush reportedly said the US administration would abide by the Taiwan Relations Act, and provide Taiwan with appropriate defense capability.
The meeting was the first of several visits that Bush will be paying Taiwan's presidential candidates.
After a breakfast meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs Chen Chien-jen (
Bush made no remarks after the meeting, preferring to save them until the end of his visit.
Soong told reporters he had explained to Bush that Taiwanese find unification unacceptable at this point, and that any change in the status quo should be in accordance with the will of the people of Taiwan.
When asked about president Lee Teng-hui's (李登輝) two-states model, Soong said: "The Republic of China is an independent sovereignty," and not a local government of the People's Republic of China.
On the same day, KMT legislator Yang Chi-hsiung (
Yang said Soong Chen-yuan (
Yang questioned whether Soong had given his son the money for investment, and if so, whether he had paid any gift tax.
In response, Soong challenged Yang to come up with concrete evidence of any alleged illegal transactions.
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
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