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.
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
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
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
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
RSS