The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will take a flexible approach to China and will re-open its department of China affairs, incoming party chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) has announced, following his landslide win in Sunday’s leadership vote.
Su, who garnered 50.47 percent of the total votes in the five-man race, will assume the party’s leadership from interim chairperson Chen Chu (陳菊) in a ceremony tomorrow.
The seasoned politician has numerous tasks ahead of him, including re-establishing party unity after the election, party reform, formulating new policies on China and the US and winning the 2014 seven-in-one municipal elections.
Photo: CNA
Party unity appears to be the top priority on Su’s agenda, with the 64-year-old saying he would hold talks with leaders of various party factions and those who hold grudges against him.
Su will soon have to appoint officials for various positions at DPP national headquarters and questions remain as to whether he will be “generous enough” to share his power with other factions.
The DPP will elect 30 members of the Central Executive Committee and 10 members of the Central Standing Committee — the DPP’s top decisionmaking body — in July, when the factions are expected once again to jockey for power.
Many analysts agree it will be critical for Su that he run the party smoothly, rebuild unity and regain party members’ trust for the DPP to have a shot at the 2016 presidential election, which some believe is Su’s next goal.
Su wasted no time extending olive branches, saying on Sunday night that he would not rule out meeting President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) if circumstances allowed it.
He also threw out the first pitch to Beijing, reiterating in his post-election press conference on Sunday night that he would re-establish the DPP’s Department of China Affairs and establish a Chinese affairs committee that includes academics and experts as members.
The DPP should engage Beijing with a flexible attitude and approaches, he said.
The veteran politician also said he would not rule out a visit to China “as long as the timing is right and no preconditions are set by Beijing.”
Several DPP legislators welcomed the idea, with Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) saying that more exchanges would help the party engage China with confidence and that the “China issue” would not be the party’s Achilles’ heel again in 2016.
Chang Kuo-cheng (張國城), a researcher at Taiwan Thinktank, urged the party to conduct a large-scale survey to better understand the public’s attitude toward China and its deep impact on various levels of Taiwanese society and the electorate’s voting behaviors.
“It would be meaningless to say that ‘we want to better understand China,’” he said.
It may be possible that Su will be mentioned during the next two years in the same breath as former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who was lauded for her leadership, which helped the party rebound from its nadir in 2008, when it suffered a humiliating defeat to Ma in the presidential election.
With Tsai and Su both interested in running for the presidency four years from now, the interactions, comparisons and competition between the two DPP heavyweights are expected to be a hot issue during Su’s tenure.
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
Air and rail traffic around Taiwan were disrupted today while power cuts occurred across the country as Typhoon Kong-rey, predicted to make landfall in eastern Taiwan this afternoon, continued edging closer to the country. A total of 241 passenger and cargo flights departing from or arriving at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport were canceled today due to the typhoon, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. As of 9:30am, 109 inbound flights, 103 outbound flights and 29 cargo flights had been canceled, the company said. Taiwan Railway Corp also canceled all express trains on its Western Trunk Line, Eastern Trunk Line, South-Link Line and attached branches
Typhoon Kong-rey is forecast to make landfall in eastern Taiwan this afternoon and would move out to sea sometime overnight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 9am today, Kong-rey's outer rim was covering most of Taiwan except for the north. The storm's center was 110km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost tip, and moving northwest at 28kph. It was carrying maximum sustained winds near its center of 184kph, and gusts of up to 227kph, the CWA said. At a news conference this morning, CWA forecaster Chu Mei-lin (朱美霖) said Kong-rey is moving "extremely fast," and is expected to make landfall between
RSS