Greater Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) was appointed acting chairperson of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday to fill the void left by outgoing DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
The veteran politician is set to take over the party helm on March 1 to serve out the remainder of Tsai’s term, which runs until May 20.
Chen, who is visiting Miami, Florida, and is scheduled to return to Taiwan on Monday, said in a statement that she gladly accepted the responsibility.
“The first priority is to stabilize and ‘reset’ the DPP after the election loss so the party can move on and continue its fight for Taiwan’s democratic development,” Chen said.
The Greater Kaohsiung mayor received unanimous support at the party’s Central Executive Committee meeting. One of her most important tasks will be the organization of the chairperson election, which is scheduled to take place on May 27.
The other important item on the meeting’s agenda was the finalization of Tsai’s election review.
Tsai called an impromptu press conference after the meeting to deliver what is likely to be her last major speech before stepping down.
The 55-year-old said she was deeply touched by the emotional drain felt by some of her supporters, who had a hard time recovering emotionally after the election loss last month.
“The emotional engagement of our supporters in the election will not be forgotten by this party. The DPP and I would like to once again express our gratitude to our supporters,” she told the press conference.
The DPP “will move on and pick up where it left off,” Tsai said.
The impact of the “economic stability card” that Beijing and the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) played during the final two weeks of the presidential election campaign was undeniable, she said.
The biggest lesson the DPP learned from the setback is that it needs to formulate a new strategy and policy toward China, she said.
The DPP should seek to engage with China and increase bilateral exchanges to better understand the nation’s powerful neighbor, because “you cannot understand China by sitting at home.”
However, that cannot be done until the party establishes a mechanism to prepare DPP members for Beijing’s “united front” tactics, she added.
Tsai said there was no need for the DPP to negate its accomplishments simply because of the election loss.
“After all, 6.09 million people voted for the DPP. Their passion and the increased share of the vote suggested that the DPP must have done something right during the past four years,” she said.
As the head of the DPP, Tsai said she took full responsibility for her mismanagement on several election issues, such as personnel, nominations, the establishment of her campaign team, campaign strategy and communication.
Beijing kept adjusting its strategy of interference in the election, DPP spokesperson Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) told reporters at a briefing, adding that China no longer resorts to military threats to influence Taiwan, but that it is looking to achieve its goals by economic means.
“Taiwanese do have doubts about Beijing’s motives and the KMT’s ability to safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty, but the second option [other than the KMT] has been lacking,” Lin said.
The DPP’s primary goal in the future is to provide Taiwanese with an option that makes them financially and economically secure, without too much dependence on the Chinese economy, Lin said.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS