SURPLUS: The government plans to redistribute about NT$180 billion of a NT$380 billion tax surplus to the public, potentially in cash or stimulus vouchers, an official saidBy Su Yung-yao and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writer
RESULT OF HISTORY: A liberal conscience might have emerged in opposition to authoritarianism during Taiwan’s transition to democracy, a Japanese researcher saidBy Su Yung-yao, Chen Cheng-yu and Kayleigh Madjar / Staff reporters, with staff writer
CHINESE TACTIC: Rumors that Chen Ming-tong had visited Thailand were intended to cast doubt on the abilities of Taiwan’s security apparatus, an official saidBy Su Yung-yao and Kayleigh Madjar / Staff reporter, with staff writer
By Su Yung-yao and Jake Chung / Staff reporter, with staff writerDefense review talks between Taiwan and the US could be held as soon as November, focusing on views on arms sales and defense strategies that might have changed since the Chinese military drills around Taiwan early this month, senior officials at the Ministry of National Defense have said.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Vice Chairman Andrew Hsia (夏立言) applied to visit Beijing on Aug. 4 as the first volleys of China’s live-fire exercises splashed into waters around Taiwan, Presidential Office spokesman Alex Huang (黃重諺) said yesterday.
The KMT’s application to make contact with Chinese officials in Beijing was received by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on the first day of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) live-fire drills, Huang told a Yahoo TV online talk show (齊有此理) in a segment that aired yesterday.
MAC officials do not know whether the KMT arranged the trip before China announced the drills or was