KMT presidential candidate Lien Chan (
During a press conference held yesterday and apparently designed to show his confidence in the results of the election, Lien also referred to the campaign as a two-horse race -- and that he would beat the DPP's Chen Shui-bian (
"According to information we have gathered, I have confidence that I will garner about five million votes," Lien said, adding that all feasible policies he proposed would be accepted by voters.
PHOTO: SUNG CHIH-HSING, LIBERTY TIMES
There are estimated to be more than 15 million people eligible to vote nationwide.
Lien said if elected, he would hold a third National Affairs Reform Conference -- and the first since the National Development Conference (
"The elite from diverse parties and organizations will be welcome to contribute their opinions on reforming domestic policies at the conference," Lien said, adding that the main issues would include eliminating "black gold" politics, providing opportunities for fairer party competition, as well as reforming the political, judicial and educational systems.
Lien said a task force would be established between March 18, when he would be elected, and his inauguration on May 20, to plan preparatory meetings for the conference.
Lien said that preparatory meetings would be held within three months after May 20.
"Many of the elite in Taiwan have been on my side to accomplish the goal of promoting Taiwan," Lien said, unveiling a list of 100 influential people from the fields of industry, culture, small- and medium-sized enterprises and academia.
Such figures include Koo Chen-fu (
It was believed that Lien's camp meant to use the name list as a response to similar lists recently released by Chen, who claimed that he had gained support from many of the country's most important citizens.
However, some people on the pro-Lien list have already expressed their support for Chen, including Lin Hsin-yi (
Lien's reason for the existence of the overlapping names was that he "welcomed" people with diverse backgrounds.
"After all, we hope we can draw positive conclusions as we did at the National Development Conference in 1996," Lien said.
A positive result of the conference, led by President Lee Teng-hui (
None of the 100 people on Lien's list of supporters appeared at the press conference in Taipei.
INVESTIGATION: The case is the latest instance of a DPP figure being implicated in an espionage network accused of allegedly leaking information to Chinese intelligence Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) member Ho Jen-chieh (何仁傑) was detained and held incommunicado yesterday on suspicion of spying for China during his tenure as assistant to then-minister of foreign affairs Joseph Wu (吳釗燮). The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said Ho was implicated during its investigation into alleged spying activities by former Presidential Office consultant Wu Shang-yu (吳尚雨). Prosecutors said there is reason to believe Ho breached the National Security Act (國家安全法) by leaking classified Ministry of Foreign Affairs information to Chinese intelligence. Following interrogation, prosecutors petitioned the Taipei District Court to detain Ho, citing concerns over potential collusion or tampering of evidence. The
TRADE: The premier pledged safeguards on ‘Made in Taiwan’ labeling, anti-dumping measures and stricter export controls to strengthen its position in trade talks Products labeled “made in Taiwan” must be genuinely made in Taiwan, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday, vowing to enforce strict safeguards against “origin laundering” and initiate anti-dumping investigations to prevent China dumping its products in Taiwan. Cho made the remarks in a discussion session with representatives from industries in Kaohsiung. In response to the US government’s recent announcement of “reciprocal” tariffs on its trading partners, President William Lai (賴清德) and Cho last week began a series of consultations with industry leaders nationwide to gather feedback and address concerns. Taiwanese and US officials held a videoconference on Friday evening to discuss the
NEGOTIATIONS: The US response to the countermeasures and plans Taiwan presented has been positive, including boosting procurement and investment, the president said Taiwan is included in the first group for trade negotiations with the US, President William Lai (賴清德) said yesterday, as he seeks to shield Taiwanese exporters from a 32 percent tariff. In Washington, US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in an interview on Fox News on Thursday that he would speak to his Taiwanese and Israeli counterparts yesterday about tariffs after holding a long discussion with the Vietnamese earlier. US President Donald Trump on Wednesday postponed punishing levies on multiple trade partners, including Taiwan, for three months after trillions of US dollars were wiped off global markets. He has maintained a 10 percent
PERSONAL DATA: The implicated KMT members allegedly compiled their petitions by copying names from party lists without the consent of the people concerned Judicial authorities searched six locations yesterday and questioned six people, including one elderly Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) member and five KMT Youth League associates, about alleged signature forgery and fraud relating to their recall efforts against two Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators. After launching a probe into alleged signature forgery and related fraud in the KMT’s recall effort, prosecutors received a number of complaints, including about one petition that had 1,748 signatures of voters whose family members said they had already passed away, and also voters who said they did not approve the use of their name, Taipei Deputy Chief Prosecutor
RSS