Frank Hsieh (
The meeting was notable for being the first time that a KMT leader has ever called upon the DPP, something that Lien pointed out while expressing his congratulations to Hsieh on the latter's inauguration as the DPP's ninth chairman.
At their meeting the two party leaders agreed to open more dialogue between the DPP and KMT and to accelerate the attainment of better interaction between parties in accordance with the principles of party politics.
PHOTO: CHIANG YING-YING, TAIPEI TIMES
There was, however, no resolution of the issue that the meeting had actually been called to address, namely the KMT's participation in a round-table meeting of the heads of Taiwan's major political parties called by President Chen Shui-bian
Hsieh urged Lien to attend the meeting but the KMT chairman said that his attendance was dependent upon what issues were on the agenda. Lien, however, did say that KMT Secretary-General Lin Feng-cheng
Lien is scheduled to depart for the US today for a month-long trip.
"It is possible that the KMT is still hesitant about attending the round-table meeting," said Wu, speaking to the media after the Hsieh-Lien meeting.
"On the basis of Lien's remarks today, however, the presidential round-table meeting will probably proceed," he said.
During the 30-minute meeting, Lien also said that parties should have mutual respect and interact in a mature fashion, while Hsieh agreed that interaction carried out in good faith would be conducive to the eradication of emotional and ideological conflicts between rival parties.
"Dialogue and exchange has been undertaken by both parties on either side of the Taiwan Strait. So why not between political parties [in Taiwan]?" Hsieh said.
Others taking part in the Hsieh-Lien meeting from the KMT included party spokesman Jason Hu (
Participants from the DPP included central standing committee member Chiu Yi-ying (邱議瑩), social promotion department director Lee Wen-ying (李文英) and spokeswoman Phoenix Cheng (鄭運鵬).
Some political analysts saw yesterday's meeting as an attempt to highlight the importance of party politics over the "government for all the people" (
"Political interaction is very important. The concept of `government for all the people' is based on the concept of party politics," the KMT's Chen said, hinting that the new government still needed the KMT's support.
Following his meeting with Lien, Hsieh visited the Presidential Office for his weekly Wednesday meeting with President Chen. He then returned to DPP headquarters and addressed reporters again.
"The concepts of party politics and `government for all the people' are not mutually exclusive," said Hsieh, quoting remarks reportedly just made to him by the president.
Hsieh said that the president was pleased to see that the DPP and KMT had met and he hoped that there would be more harmonious political interaction. Hsieh added that the president would assign acting Secretary-General to the President Chen Che-nan (
Hsieh met with New Party leader Hau Lung-bin (
On Monday Hsieh proposed a meeting with the PFP's Chairman James Soong
Soong has said he would welcome such dialogue.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
RSS