National party congresses of the KMT and the PFP yesterday selected their chairmen, Lien Chan (連戰) and James Soong (宋楚瑜) respectively, as candidates for next March's presidential election.
The KMT-PFP alliance, forged by Lien and Soong last month, was also approved by the two parties' national party congresses, allowing the two parties to plan a joint ticket for the presidential race.
The KMT held its congress at the National Sun Yat-Sen Memorial Hall while the PFP's was at the Civil Service Development Institute.
In a speech delivered after getting the KMT congress' endorsement, Lien pledged that, if elected as president next year, he would make an immediate visit to China, dubbed by him as a "journey of peace."
"As long as it can enable peaceful relation for the both sides of the Strait, I am willing to shoulder this mission and responsibility for the sake of Taiwan's 23 million people and their offspring," Lien told his audience.
"I will push for immediate opening of a direct air link with China and sign several agreements with China so that Taiwan and mainland people can live in peace," Lien said.
He would also push for the proper implementation of Taiwan's "semi-presidential system" he said.
Citing the KMT's achievements made during its decades-long rule in Taiwan before losing power to the DPP in 2000, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (
Lien and Soong are slated to meet on Wednesday to further exchange views on its KMT-PFP Alliance Policy-making Committee, which will serve to thrash out issues related to cooperation between the two parties.
While the parties have agreed to file a joint ticket for the election there has yet been no agreement on who would lead it, though it is widely assumed that Lien will take this role.
During the KMT's national party congress, Ma was named by Lien and approved by the party con-gress, with applause, to be a party vice chairman in addition to the current five.
However, one of the five vice chairpersons, Chiang Chung-ling (
"[My resignation] has nothing to do with Ma's assumption of the vice chairmanship," Chiang said.
The KMT congress both approved Chiang's resignation and the selection of Legislative Yuan vice speaker Chiang Ping-kun (
Commenting on the opposition camp's nominations of Lien and Soong, DPP Deputy Secretary General Lee Ying-yuan (
The two parties had made no progress in the last three years in the issues of strengthening intra-party democracy and exterminating "black gold" politics, Lee said.
The congress decision had been long decided in advance by the party leaders and the congress process was a travesty of a democratic selection process, Lee said.
Lee said the semi-presidential system was really a scheme seeking to pave the way for Soong's serving as vice president and premier concurrently.
This was a form of booty-sharing already agreed upon by the blue-camp leaders, he said.
Also See Story:
Editorial: Lien Chan makes China an issue
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most