Premier Liu Chao-shiuan (劉兆玄) denied yesterday that the government had set a timetable for unification in 2016.
“I do not have any knowledge of and have never heard of such a timetable,” Liu said in response to questions from Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Wu Ching-chih (吳清池) during the legislature’s plenary session.
Wu asked Liu if President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government had drawn up plans to seek unification with China in 2016 as Taiwan Solidarity Union Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) had implied in recent remarks.
Huang has told reporters that he believed China would refrain from raising sensitive political issues during Ma’s current term and do its best to help Ma win reelection in 2012.
Then Beijing could begin pressuring Ma after 2012 to move toward unification in 2016, which would be the final year of Ma’s second term in office, Huang said.
Liu told Wu he did not understand why Huang would make such statements.
Despite Liu’s comments, Wu urged the National Security Council (NSC) and the National Security Bureau (NSB) to investigate if such a timetable was stipulated in any confidential documents.
Liu also told Wu that the government had not drawn up any timetable for a comprehensive economic cooperation agreement (CECA) with China, either.
The government’s plan to pursue a CECA with China has sparked a public uproar as activists fear the administration could compromise Taiwan’s sovereignty and move one step closer to unification.
“The Mainland Affairs Council and the Ministry of Economic Affairs are discussing details of the plan,” Liu said.
Liu also apologized to the public again for the rising unemployment rate, but his apology did not stop Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator William Lai (賴清德)from paralyzing the plenary session.
“I hereby apologize to you [and the public] for failing to accomplish things we promised,” Liu said.
He then lashed out at opposition lawmakers who refused to allow him to brief the legislature on Friday about the government’s special budget request for public work investment unless the premier apologized for the poor state of the economy.
“The opposition demanded to be allowed to screen the wording of my apology [before I could brief the legislature]. This was totally unreasonable. No premier would take an insult such as this,” Liu said.
Unhappy with Liu’s answer, Lai refused to leave the podium after his allotted 15-minute question-and-answer session was over.
He paralyzed the plenary session for about an hour and efforts by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) to mediate were unsuccessful.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
RSS