In the face of growing skepticism about the chances for the proposed pan-blue merger, People First Party (PFP) politicians sought to reassure voters that the merger is still on although party Chairman James Soong (
Meanwhile, a PFP legislator initiated a lawmakers' signature drive supporting Soong's proposal.
While many members support an earlier merger in the interest of the December elections, Soong said, the parties' focus on the timing of the merger was detracting from the attention that should be spent on the campaign.
"Winning over half the seats in the legislature for the blue camp in the year-end elections is not dependent on a merger. Each party should strike out for itself. If the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), New Party, PFP and independent candidates all win, then the blue camp will still have a majority," Soong said in Tainan yesterday.
Even though the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) parties are allies, no one sees them talking about merging, Soong said.
The merger is unlikely to occur before the elections, since the KMT must first resolve differences within its own ranks before the PFP will consider merging with it, Soong said.
In response to recent comments by KMT elders that Soong has been a barrier to the merger's success, Soong said that there was no point to a merger if the parties could not work out a new collective vision and framework for the resultant party.
"The elders keep criticizing me and the PFP. Why don't they say anything about the people in their own party that support Taiwan's independence? Or about the people that support dropping the `one China' policy?" Soong asked yesterday.
However, if the KMT can propose a viable framework for the merger before the elections, Soong said he does not object to an earlier merger.
Soong's calls for a post-election merger received support from PFP Legislator Feng Ting-kuo (
According to the agreement, as written by Feng, all those who sign must support the merging of the KMT, PFP and New Party by Feb. 1, and the resultant party will retain the KMT name.
"We want to establish a brand-new party, which will bring a new vision to the people: peaceful cross-strait relations, financial prosperity and down-to-earth politics. We will draw a clear line between us and the ethnic discrimination, financial corruption and cross-strait enmity supported by Lee Teng-hui (李登輝)," the statement read.
"I decided to propose this statement to reassure pan-blue supporters that the merger is going to happen," Feng said.
The point of the agreement is to curtail debate about the merger, allowing the parties to refocus on the legislative elections, Feng said.
The statement contained an ominous and vague threat for PFP members that do not sign the agreement, however.
"If the agreement is accepted and supported by the party, then it's up to the party to deal with those who do not sign the agreement," Feng said.
He has already received "positive feedback" from the PFP leadership about the statement and believes that there are no barriers to its usage, Feng said.
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
GEOPOLITICAL CONCERNS: Foreign companies such as Nissan, Volkswagen and Konica Minolta have pulled back their operations in China this year Foreign companies pulled more money from China last quarter, a sign that some investors are still pessimistic even as Beijing rolls out stimulus measures aimed at stabilizing growth. China’s direct investment liabilities in its balance of payments dropped US$8.1 billion in the third quarter, data released by the Chinese State Administration of Foreign Exchange showed on Friday. The gauge, which measures foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, was down almost US$13 billion for the first nine months of the year. Foreign investment into China has slumped in the past three years after hitting a record in 2021, a casualty of geopolitical tensions,
A registered sex offender from the US who went missing after entering Taiwan has been found and would be deported in light of the risk he poses to the public, the National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday. The agency launched a search for Levi Forrest Wallace, 43, after it was informed by the American Institute of Taiwan (AIT) that he had entered Taiwan on Oct. 2 on a tourist visa. He was not on the US government’s wanted list. Wallace was sentenced to 90 days in jail with a two-year probation in 2001 after he was convicted of sexual delinquency of
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