Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) visited Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday to clear up confusion over comments made about the premiership.
Both Ma and Wang later dismissed a media report carried in yesterday's evening paper saying that Ma had apologized for a "blunder" he had made.
Ma on Sunday said that Wang would be selected to head a new Cabinet. However, both Wang and the Presidential Office immediately denied Ma's comments.
PHOTO: CHEN TSE-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
After his 90-minute meeting with Ma yesterday, Wang told reporters that President Chen Shui-bian (
Wang said he suggested to the president that Ma would make a good premier.
Ma told reporters that his sole intention in making the premiership issue public was to "protect" Wang, and insisted that it would require party-to-party talks.
He also said he would be happy to discuss the issue with the president.
Wang thanked Ma for making the effort to "protect" him and said that there was no communication problem between him and Ma.
Wang yesterday said a Cabinet reshuffle was one of the topics he discussed with the president on Saturday and that he had never considered taking up the job, nor did he want to.
"We first talked about the arms procurement plan, then about the confirmation of the president's selection of Control Yuan members and then cross-strait issues," Wang said. "We then talked about the Cabinet reshuffle and other important government bills."
When speaking about the government reorganization, Wang said the president has several options at hand, including retaining Premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), appointing another DPP member as premier or recruiting an opposition member to head the administration.
As both the president and Ma have expressed a wish to speak to each other, Wang said that a meeting was necessary and that he was willing to act as a broker to make it possible.
Regarding the arms procurement plan, Ma has made it clear that he will let the KMT caucus handle the issue.
Wang yesterday said the party's arms procurement plan task force will make a recommendation to the caucus.
Wang yesterday also met with former KMT chairman Lien Chan (
Wang said Lien did not comment in detail on the issue, saying only "good."
Wang said he hopes to arrange a time to meet with People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
The KMT caucus yesterday acknowledged the Wang-Ma meeting, saying the two need to talk things over in a bid to resolve misunderstandings and ease tension.
Meanwhile, four DPP lawmakers yesterday said they were opposed to recruiting an opposition member to head the government and called on the president to continue reform.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
RSS