Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Johnny Chiang (江啟臣) said the KMT would welcome a meeting between President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) when asked about yesterday morning’s meeting between Tsai and People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜).
Tsai met with Soong, saying that the meeting was aimed at soliciting advice from other parties about national affairs and facilitating positive interactions between the future governing party and opposition parties.
Chiang said that changes could be seen every day in politics, which shows that the old saying about the immovability of the traditional “blue and green plates” is not accurate.
“The KMT should pay extra attention to [the shifting political scene], rather than taking voters’ political affiliations for granted, Chiang said.
Multiparty development is good for Taiwan’s democracy, for which cooperation between parties could be a driving force, he said. “The KMT would certainly respect cooperation between the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the PFP, if it would be of great advantage to the nation and the people, but we would hope that there is also room for cooperation between the KMT and those parties.”
Chiang said the KMT worked with the PFP in elections for legislative committee conveners that took place last week, “as parties compete and cooperate in different fields and on different issues.”
Chiang said that the KMT would welcome a meeting between Ma and Tsai, adding that he hoped Tsai would keep an open attitude to meeting with opposition party leaders to improve the nation.
When asked about a possible meeting with Ma, Tsai said: “President Ma is about to make a visit [to Latin America]; we will contact him after he returns and arrange a meeting with him at an appropriate time.”
Ma said of the potential event: “We will try to arrange such a meeting.”
Ma is to visit Guatemala and Belize, two of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies in Central America, from Sunday through Saturday next week.
Separately, New Power Party Secretary-General Chen Hui-min (陳惠敏) said that DPP officials called NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) two days earlier about the possibility of setting up a meeting.
The New Power Party was “open” to such a meeting, but there had not been any discussion over a time or what would be discussed, Chen said.
Additional reporting by Abraham Gerber
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
Taiwanese barista Xie Yi-chen (謝溢宸) recently triumphed at the 2024 World Coffee Championships, taking home 1st place in the World Latte Art category. Xie, 28, impressed the judges in the final round with patterns of a whale, a moose, and a dragon in the three-day competition that took place in Copenhagen, Denmark from June 27-29, clinching the title of latte art world champion during his first time representing Taiwan on the world stage. At a press conference held by the Taiwan Coffee Association on Thursday, Xie said that creating latte art gives him a tremendous feeling of achievement. Speaking about his entries in
TRAVEL CONVENIENCE: The program is to shorten wait times while passing through airport checks and would start for Taiwanese from January next year Japan is to launch a new program to expedite entry procedures for Taiwanese starting from January next year. The Japanese government is planning to introduce new rules to shorten the time it takes foreign travelers to pass through immigration, thereby attracting more tourists to visit, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported yesterday. An airport preclearance program would be implemented to allow foreign travelers to finish some screenings at their departure airport’s terminals and undergo simple confirmation procedures upon arrival, it said. The program would initially be applied to travelers from Taiwan from January next year and could be extended to travelers from elsewhere depending
The annual Taipei Summer Festival, which starts today, is to tone down its fireworks displays, the Taipei Department of Information and Tourism said on Monday. Fireworks displays are to be held at the riverside site in Datong District’s (大同) Dadaocheng (大稻埕) area on four days at this year’s festival, with the first today, and then on Wednesday next week, July 31 and Aug. 10, the department said. There were eight displays last year, with the reduction aimed at minimizing inconvenience to local residents, it said. The first three shows, which are all on Wednesdays, are to last for five minutes, while the final