The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) caucus said yesterday it was ready to go head-to-head with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus and would make every effort to block several bills lined up for this week’s legislative agenda.
A proposed amendment to the Act Governing the Relations between Peoples of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (兩岸人民關係條例) is scheduled for review in today’s Internal Administration Committee meeting, as well as a proposed amendment to the University Act (大學法), which will be reviewed at the Education and Culture Committee meeting.
If the proposals pass, universities in Taiwan could begin recruiting graduate students from China.
Voicing the caucus’ opposition to allowing Chinese students to study in Taiwan, DPP caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said it was obvious the KMT caucus scheduled the review of the two bills at the same time to restrict DPP legislators from voicing their opinions.
Ker said he had instructed all DPP legislators in the two meetings to make their stance known.
A controversial amendment to the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) is scheduled for tomorrow’s legislative plenary session.
The DPP described the proposal as a prelude to martial law, saying that it would hand full power over protests to an authoritarian government.
The amendment proposed by the Cabinet requires protest organizers to notify police of a protest’s time, location and parade route five days in advance and stipulates that violators could be fined up to NT$50,000 (US$1,500). Police would have the right to ban a rally or change its route if they believed it would jeopardize national security, social order or the public interest, the proposed amendment said. The amendment would also give police the right to break up any rally that blocked traffic.
Meanwhile, Straits Exchange Foundation Chairman Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) and Mainland Affairs Council Chairwoman Lai Shin-yuan (賴幸媛) will brief the legislature’s Internal Administration Committee on the third round of cross-strait talks on Wednesday and Thursday.
The administration of President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) has said there is no need for National Security Council Secretary-General Su Chi (蘇起) to attend the meetings because Su is an aide, not a decision-maker.
Ker said that the DPP caucus had asked Su to brief the legislature on Wednesday and Thursday and that if Su failed to appear on the floor, he and the government would be in contempt of the Constitution.
“Chiang skipped a briefing to the legislature before he went to China for the cross-strait talks [late last month] and after the talks Su is refusing to present the government’s stance on cross-strait polices,” Ker said. “The government has totally neglected the legislature’s power to monitor significant cross-strait policies.”
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
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