Leaders from all legislative caucuses have determined that lawmakers should not use foreign languages when questioning Cabinet officials.
Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) floated the suggestion, to which representatives attending a cross-party talk on Thursday evening gave their support.
The non-binding proposal was aimed at saving Premier Yu Shyi-kun and Cabinet officials from further embarrassment during interpellations.
Yu's English skills were put to the test on Tuesday when TSU lawmaker John Wang (
"I heard from abroad that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is arranging a meeting between first lady Wu Shu-chen (
Failing to understand the question, the premier looked perplexed. Minister of Foreign Affairs Eugene Chien (簡又新) had to come to his rescue and assume the role of an interpreter.
Yu then replied in Mandarin that he had a bumpy educational process and that his English is not good.
"I only speak a little English," he added, in English.
Legislative whips from across party lines promised the speaker they would ask their colleagues not to use foreign languages on the legislative floor.
They also reached a tentative agreement on how to divide the chairmanship of the 12 standing committees among the four legislative caucuses.
Each committee can elect three conveners whose main job is to preside over committee meetings.
Under the multi-partisan pact, the DPP, the biggest party in the legislature, will be given at least one chairperson's seat in all the committees.
The KMT will have 11 chairpersons' seats, the PFP eight and the TSU three.
The arrangement will become invalid if independent lawmakers lodge protests before Oct. 2, when the legislature is due to decide the membership of the individual committees.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) and Chunghwa Telecom yesterday confirmed that an international undersea cable near Keelung Harbor had been cut by a Chinese ship, the Shunxin-39, a freighter registered in Cameroon. Chunghwa Telecom said the cable had its own backup equipment, and the incident would not affect telecommunications within Taiwan. The CGA said it dispatched a ship under its first fleet after receiving word of the incident and located the Shunxin-39 7 nautical miles (13km) north of Yehliu (野柳) at about 4:40pm on Friday. The CGA demanded that the Shunxin-39 return to seas closer to Keelung Harbor for investigation over the
National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology (NKUST) yesterday promised it would increase oversight of use of Chinese in course materials, following a social media outcry over instances of simplified Chinese characters being used, including in a final exam. People on Threads wrote that simplified Chinese characters were used on a final exam and in a textbook for a translation course at the university, while the business card of a professor bore the words: “Taiwan Province, China.” Photographs of the exam, the textbook and the business card were posted with the comments. NKUST said that other members of the faculty did not see
The Taipei City Government yesterday said contractors organizing its New Year’s Eve celebrations would be held responsible after a jumbo screen played a Beijing-ran television channel near the event’s end. An image showing China Central Television (CCTV) Channel 3 being displayed was posted on the social media platform Threads, sparking an outcry on the Internet over Beijing’s alleged political infiltration of the municipal government. A Taipei Department of Information and Tourism spokesman said event workers had made a “grave mistake” and that the Television Broadcasts Satellite (TVBS) group had the contract to operate the screens. The city would apply contractual penalties on TVBS
An apartment building in New Taipei City’s Sanchong District (三重) collapsed last night after a nearby construction project earlier in the day allegedly caused it to tilt. Shortly after work began at 9am on an ongoing excavation of a construction site on Liuzhang Street (六張街), two neighboring apartment buildings tilted and cracked, leading to exterior tiles peeling off, city officials said. The fire department then dispatched personnel to help evacuate 22 residents from nine households. After the incident, the city government first filled the building at No. 190, which appeared to be more badly affected, with water to stabilize the
RSS