Despite speculation and encouragement from supporters, Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) yesterday announced that he would not run in next year’s presidential election, adding that he would fully support Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) campaign.
“I will not join the DPP primary for next year’s presidential candidate,” Lai told reporters at a charity event in Tainan. “First of all, I think it’s more important to hold on to values than hold any positions, and I don’t necessarily have to be the person who leads the party to victory.”
Lai added that Tsai has been preparing to run in next year’s election for a long time and is a good candidate to represent the DPP, “since she has led the DPP to stand up again after its defeat in 2008 and it was under her leadership that the DPP was able to win in the nine-in-one local elections last year.”
Photo: Tsai Wen-chu, Taipei Times
“The DPP should stand united and give its full support to Tsai — and I will also give my best wishes to her,” Lai said.
He said that he did not want to quit his current position now, as he has a rare chance to reform local politics in Tainan, adding that “it is more important to uphold a value than hold a position.”
Although Lai said he would not take part in next year’s presidential election and the DPP finalized its nomination schedule last month, many supporters as well as DPP politicians — including former presidential adviser Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) and Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) — have expressed their support for Lai, with Koo even promising the media that Lai would decide to run in the end.
However, Lai declined to answer when asked if he decided not to run because his support rate is much lower than Tsai’s.
Meanwhile, Tsai said she respects Lai’s decision and lauded him as a courageous and talented politician.
“Lai is an excellent political leader in the party; what he has accomplished as mayor of Tainan makes him a role model in leadership and governance,” Tsai said. “I especially admire him for his courage in fighting against dirty money and reforming local politics.”
“As Lai is an excellent politician, I would like to invite him to be part of the 2016 presidential election [campaign],” she added.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
RSS