Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday said that he has not talked to People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) for more than a year, in response to rumors that the two are planning to pair up for January’s presidential election.
The Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) cited an anonymous source alleging that Wang and Soong have been conversing “on a hotline” about potential collaboration for the next year’s presidential election, with Wang as the presidential candidate and Soong as his running mate.
Wang, a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), dismissed the report yesterday, calling it “someone’s unrealistic imagination.”
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
“I have not talked to Chairman Soong face-to-face or over the phone for at least a year,” Wang said.
PFP spokesman Clarence Wu (吳崑玉) also denied there are ongoing talks between the two, saying that similar rumors have been flying around for months, but that none of them are true.
He asked the media not to “take advantage of Wang,” saying that the PFP would respect Wang’s decision on his next move.
Regarding the meeting said to be planned between Soong and KMT chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), Wu said that because the secretary-generals of the two parties are longtime acquaintances, it is easy for the two party leaders to meet up.
However, Wu said that because a meeting between the two would be criticized as “negotiations behind closed doors” if undertaken otherwise, the PFP has requested the meeting to be open to the public.
However, the KMT has not agreed to that, leaving the matter in limbo, Wu said.
Chu yesterday said that there would be no public Chu-Soong meeting, as he had already made clear, but he would keep discussing various issues with Soong.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but