The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government will prioritize passage of a cross-strait agreement on double taxation avoidance as well as bills on the budget, government restructuring and an all-volunteer military in the fall legislative session, Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said yesterday.
Mao said the Cabinet would also push a special budget bill to finance a river basin management plan, an amendment to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to raise wages for their employees and legislation promoting industrial innovation.
He listed the government’s priorities at a forum held by the KMT’s Policy Committee to discuss the legislature’s operations and coordination with the government before the new session begins today.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who is the party’s presidential candidate, were all present at the forum.
Among the government’s top priorities is the ratification of an agreement between Taiwan and China that aims to protect Taiwanese businesses with operations in China from paying taxes on the same income on both sides of the Taiwan Strait.
The double taxation avoidance agreement was signed last month by Taiwan’s Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Lin Join-sane (林中森) and China’s Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits Chairman Chen Deming (陳德銘) on behalf of their respective governments.
Ministry of Finance officials last month said that the pact would reduce the tax burden of Taiwanese companies and also offer an incentive for foreign companies to set up operations in Taiwan.
Meanwhile, KMT lawmakers at the forum called on party heavyweights to improve cooperation and solidarity before the January presidential and legislative elections, to avoid putting the party’s chances at risk.
KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) said that despite the Democratic Progressive Party’s internal bickering, it at least presented a united front during elections.
On the other hand, polling revealed that no one believes the KMT has the same willingness to maintain solidarity, he said.
“Legislators are often the ones sacrificed, because our party’s heavyweights cannot work together,” Lin said, adding that he hoped the KMT’s principals would be able to talk things out.
The president said he fully supported the idea and would “do everything in my power, wherever I am needed.”
Chu said solidarity was important, adding that everyone at the forum was considered a “member of the upper echelon of the party.”
“We must work together in order for our 880,000 members to be united in purpose,” Chu said, adding that only then would the party get the support it needs.
Wang said coordinated efforts by the Cabinet, the legislature and the KMT to push the bills through would be very helpful to the party’s chances in the January polls.
Two US House of Representatives committees yesterday condemned China’s attempt to orchestrate a crash involving Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim’s (蕭美琴) car when she visited the Czech Republic last year as vice president-elect. Czech local media in March last year reported that a Chinese diplomat had run a red light while following Hsiao’s car from the airport, and Czech intelligence last week told local media that Chinese diplomats and agents had also planned to stage a demonstrative car collision. Hsiao on Saturday shared a Reuters news report on the incident through her account on social media platform X and wrote: “I
SHIFT PRIORITIES: The US should first help Taiwan respond to actions China is already taking, instead of focusing too heavily on deterring a large-scale invasion, an expert said US Air Force leaders on Thursday voiced concerns about the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) missile capabilities and its development of a “kill web,” and said that the US Department of Defense’s budget request for next year prioritizes bolstering defenses in the Indo-Pacific region due to the increasing threat posed by China. US experts said that a full-scale Chinese invasion of Taiwan is risky and unlikely, with Beijing more likely to pursue coercive tactics such as political warfare or blockades to achieve its goals. Senior air force and US Space Force leaders, including US Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink and
‘BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS’: The US military’s aim is to continue to make any potential Chinese invasion more difficult than it already is, US General Ronald Clark said The likelihood of China invading Taiwan without contest is “very, very small” because the Taiwan Strait is under constant surveillance by multiple countries, a US general has said. General Ronald Clark, commanding officer of US Army Pacific (USARPAC), the US Army’s largest service component command, made the remarks during a dialogue hosted on Friday by Washington-based think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Asked by the event host what the Chinese military has learned from its US counterpart over the years, Clark said that the first lesson is that the skill and will of US service members are “unmatched.” The second
Czech officials have confirmed that Chinese agents surveilled Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) during her visit to Prague in March 2024 and planned a collision with her car as part of an “unprecedented” provocation by Beijing in Europe. Czech Military Intelligence learned that their Chinese counterparts attempted to create conditions to carry out a demonstrative incident involving Hsiao, which “did not go beyond the preparation stage,” agency director Petr Bartovsky told Czech Radio in a report yesterday. In addition, a Chinese diplomat ran a red light to maintain surveillance of the Taiwanese
RSS