How to cooperate more effectively is on the agenda for troubled pan-blue allies the People First Party (PFP) and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), PFP Chairman James Soong (
Returning to Taiwan from the US yesterday morning to attend a funeral service for former first lady Faina Chiang Fang-liang (蔣方良), Soong told reporters that the PFP and the KMT would work together to steer the nation's policy direction.
PHOTO: CNA
"I repeat: The KMT and the PFP will cooperate," Soong said on arrival at CKS International Airport yesterday morning.
PHOTO: CNA
Soong said the two parties would work together to draw up policies that would maintain the status quo and defend the use of the title "Republic of China."
Adding to speculation that the troubled relationship between the two parties is on the mend, Legislative Speaker and KMT Vice Chairman Wang Jin-pyng (
Asked later in the day on when a highly-anticipated meeting between the leaders of the two parties would take place, Soong said he would leave the decision up to party officials.
The two parties have not met in an official capacity since the legislative elections. And while both parties have said that they would meet after the elections to discuss a pan-blue camp merger, conflict between the parties during the campaign strained relations, making the future of any merger an object of intense media speculation.
During Chiang's funeral later in the morning, Soong met briefly with Lien, shaking hands after the service.
Chiang, who died on Dec. 15 of pulmonary and cardiac failure at the age of 88, was the widow of late president Chiang Ching-kuo (
A large number of government officials and political figures attended yesterday's service, with President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) being the first to pay their respects at 8am.
After the ceremony concluded at around 10:30am, Chiang's body was sent to a crematorium in Keelung, where it was cremated. Her ashes were then taken to a temporary mausoleum in Touliao, Taoyuan County.
Chiang was praised during the funeral service by Pastor Chow Lien-hwa (
While Chiang had a "foreigner's face," Chow said, she also had a "Chinese heart."
While at the airport, Soong also chatted about his marriage, saying that Sunday was the 38th anniversary of his marriage to Chen Wan-shui (
Soong left for San Francisco two weeks ago amid speculation that his marriage was on the rocks.
"No matter if you're talking about [the relationship between] political parties or man and wife, or even between friends, there are bound to be differences in opinion at times," Soong said.
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm early yesterday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, less than a week after a typhoon barreled across the nation. The agency issued an advisory at 3:30am stating that the 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, of the Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, with a 100km radius. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA
Residents have called on the Taipei City Government to reconsider its plan to demolish a four-decades-old pedestrian overpass near Daan Forest Park. The 42-year-old concrete and steel structure that serves as an elevated walkway over the intersection of Heping and Xinsheng roads is to be closed on Tuesday in preparation for demolition slated for completion by the end of the month. However, in recent days some local residents have been protesting the planned destruction of the intersection overpass that is rendered more poetically as “sky bridge” in Chinese. “This bridge carries the community’s collective memory,” said a man surnamed Chuang
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man
A tropical depression east of the Philippines became a tropical storm earlier today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The 22nd tropical storm, named Yinxing, in this year's Pacific typhoon season formed at 2am, the CWA said. As of 8am, the storm was 1,730km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) with a 100km radius, it said. It was moving west-northwest at 32kph, with maximum sustained winds of 83kph and gusts of up to 108kph. Based on its current path, the storm is not expected to hit Taiwan, CWA meteorologist Huang En-hung (黃恩宏) said. However, a more accurate forecast would be made on Wednesday, when Yinxing is
RSS