The New Power Party (NPP) legislative caucus yesterday held its first meeting, with members reaching a consensus on the division of labor to promote amendments in line with the party’s focus on progressive changes.
The caucus pledged to promote various bills, including amendments to the Referendum Act (公民投票法) and the Civil Servants Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法), which had met resistance in the last legislature.
The party’s “transitional justice” task force is to be convened by Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐), with his team working on reclaiming ill-gotten party assets and supervising changes to high-school curriculum guidelines — an issue that sparked serious controversy last year.
A task force on “returning rights to the people” is to be headed by Legislator Kawlo Iyun Pacidal, who is to push for changes to the Referendum Act, the recall act and other related laws.
Legislator Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) and Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智), a lawyer and NPP candidate who lost in the contest for Hsinchu City’s legislative seat to the Democratic Progressive Party’s Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘), are to be in charge of a team on legislative reforms.
NPP caucus whip Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) is to be in charge of drafting laws against media monopolization and oversee the operations of the National Communications Commission.
NPP Chairman and Legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) is to lead a team that deals with the institutionalization of the presidential transition of power, with a public hearing set to be held on Friday.
Huang said he would also convene a “non-nuclear homeland” team, which plans to send a request to Taiwan Power Co after the Lunar New Year holiday for the caucus to visit the Second Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Wanli District (萬里) and review plans for the power plant’s retirement and its storage pools for spent fuel rods.
DEFENSE: The National Security Bureau promised to expand communication and intelligence cooperation with global partners and enhance its strategic analytical skills China has not only increased military exercises and “gray zone” tactics against Taiwan this year, but also continues to recruit military personnel for espionage, the National Security Bureau (NSB) said yesterday in a report to the Legislative Yuan. The bureau submitted the report ahead of NSB Director-General Tsai Ming-yen’s (蔡明彥) appearance before the Foreign and National Defense Committee today. Last year, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) conducted “Joint Sword-2024A and B” military exercises targeting Taiwan and carried out 40 combat readiness patrols, the bureau said. In addition, Chinese military aircraft entered Taiwan’s airspace 3,070 times last year, up about
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
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