Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Ma Ying-jeou (
Ma made the remarks when approached about a report in the Chinese-language China Times.
The paper quoted anonymous sources from the pan-blue camp as saying that Lee "understood" and "accepted" Siew's decision to be Ma's running mate after Siew, who is close to Lee, met with Lee on the eve of Ma's announcement.
"Siew is an honest man," Ma said at a Taipei book release. "It is perfectly natural that he would meet Lee."
Ma declined, however, to reveal what Siew and Lee talked about during their meeting. He also dismissed the newspaper's claim that the Siew-Lee meeting could cause pan-blue supporters to question Siew's political affiliation because Lee has been on poor terms with the pan-blue camp since the KMT lost the presidency to the Democratic Progressive Party in 2000.
Chien Cheng-shan (
At the book launch, the KMT presidential candidate presented a book detailing his reflections during a 10-day bike tour in May that took him from the south to the north of the country.
Saying that he began the journey with an aim to find "the force that drives Taiwan forward," Ma said he had gained insight into the core values of the public, which he said are diligence, perseverance, tolerance and refusal to take defeat.
Ma said he would incorporate these values in his platform.
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
BITTERLY COLD: The inauguration ceremony for US president-elect Donald Trump has been moved indoors due to cold weather, with the new venue lacking capacity A delegation of cross-party lawmakers from Taiwan, led by Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜), for the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump, would not be able to attend the ceremony, as it is being moved indoors due to forecasts of intense cold weather in Washington tomorrow. The inauguration ceremony for Trump and US vice president-elect JD Vance is to be held inside the Capitol Rotunda, which has a capacity of about 2,000 people. A person familiar with the issue yesterday said although the outdoor inauguration ceremony has been relocated, Taiwan’s legislative delegation has decided to head off to Washington as scheduled. The delegation
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Another wave of cold air would affect Taiwan starting from Friday and could evolve into a continental cold mass, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Temperatures could drop below 10°C across Taiwan on Monday and Tuesday next week, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. Seasonal northeasterly winds could bring rain, he said. Meanwhile, due to the continental cold mass and radiative cooling, it would be cold in northern and northeastern Taiwan today and tomorrow, according to the CWA. From last night to this morning, temperatures could drop below 10°C in northern Taiwan, it said. A thin coat of snow