The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday expressed regret after questions it posed to President Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) nominees for the Control Yuan went unanswered.
The legislature is expected to vote on Friday on whether to approve the nominations.
The NPP said it had sent questions to the nominees via the Presidential Office and sought a reply by Thursday last week, but as of yesterday it still had not received a response.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“Does the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] feel no obligation to respond given that it has a legislative majority?” NPP caucus whip Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) asked.
The NPP would see how the nominees respond to questions on Friday before deciding whether to back their appointments, Chiu said.
Some who have been nominated for a second time had answered questions prior to their first appointment, but not this time, NPP Legislator Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) said.
One of the questions asked the nominees if they believe that Control Yuan members should be able to investigate cases that have already been decided by the courts, while another asked if they support the abolition of the Control Yuan or a reduction in the number of its members, Chen said.
The NPP hopes that the nominees, if appointed, would tackle the issue of illegal factories on farmland and hills, Chen said, adding that such factories should be dismantled and government bodies in charge of the issue strictly supervised.
In a case involving improperly issued mining permits for Asia Cement Corp, the Control Yuan failed to take action against officials from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Hualien County’s Sioulin Township (秀林) Office, despite accusations against them.
Meanwhile, the legislature yesterday invited academics to speak at a public hearing on the nominees, including former grand justice Hsu Yu-hsiu (許玉秀), who was recommended by the NPP; professor Lin Chao-chun (林超駿), who was recommended by the Taiwan People’s Party; professors Hsieh Chen-yu (謝政諭) and Lin Teng-yao (林騰鷂), and lawyer Chang Chun-lun (張鈞綸), who were recommended by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT); and professor Yang Chia-ling (楊佳羚), associate professors Liu Chao-lung (劉兆隆) and Chou Chung-hsien (周忠憲), and Covenants Watch chief executive officer Huang Yi-bee (黃怡碧), who were recommended by the DPP.
A supervisory committee of eight members from each caucus attended the hearing, but KMT Legislator Charles Chen (陳以信) was the only committee member present when Lin Teng-yao was making his comment, prompting the latter to accuse the legislature of “treating academics like monkeys and playing with them.”
Deputy Legislative Speaker Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌), who presided over the hearing, said that the hearing was being broadcast online and that it could be watched from anywhere in Taiwan.
Hsu said that a delay of discussions over judicial reform until after the hearing was taking the steam out of the movement.
Control Yuan members “should be braver” in the face of the conflict between judicial and supervisory authorities, Hsu said.
Hsieh said that the 27 nominees were underqualified.
None of them had studied public policy and only five had legal backgrounds, Hsieh said.
The nominees were “unbalanced and overly favored social benefits and social movements,” he said, adding that they were politically biased toward the DPP.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods