Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday brushed off speculation over possible vice-presidential contenders for next year’s presidential campaign.
“It’s too early to talk about such things now,” she said in response to reporters’ requests for comment on Tainan Mayor William Lai’s (賴清德) announcement that he would not take part in next year’s presidential election — as a presidential or vice-presidential candidate.
Tsai is seen as the party’s presidential hopeful, though she has yet to formally announce her intention to run.
In the past few weeks, some senior DPP figures, notably former presidential adviser Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏), have shown their support for Lai and encouraged him to run.
However, Lai on Friday said that he would not seek the party’s presidential nomination, adding on Saturday that he would not be a vice presidential candidate either, after Tsai suggested that he should play a role in the election, even if he is not the presidential candidate.
Meanwhile, Tsai yesterday vowed to win at least half of the legislative seats in next year’s legislative elections.
“As the by-elections ... are over, the DPP will now start presenting our own reform proposals for the challenges that the nation faces, and begin to prepare for the next legislative elections,” Tsai said on the sidelines of an event organized by the Thinking Taiwan Foundation in Yilan County. “Our goal is to have the force of our reforms [lead to winning] more than half of the legislative seats.”
Tsai said that the DPP would come up with solutions for every problem the nation faces, so that voters are more confident about putting the DPP in power.
“The DPP will encourage all our capable comrades to take on the task for the party,” she said. “As for those electoral districts that are more challenging for the party, we will also seek to collaborate with other political forces.”
Tsai said that although the DPP did not gain more seats in Saturday’s legislative by-elections, “the number of votes our candidates received in each electoral district has obviously grown,” adding that the party would work harder to gain the trust of voters in Miaoli and Nantou counties.
In the five districts where by-elections were held — Taichung and Miaoli, Nantou, Changhua and Pingtung counties — the DPP retained its seats in Taichung, Changhua and Pingtung, while the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) kept its seats in Miaoli and Nantou counties.
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
QUICK LOOK: The amendments include stricter recall requirements and Constitutional Court procedures, as well as a big increase in local governments’ budgets Portions of controversial amendments to tighten requirements for recalling officials and Constitutional Court procedures were passed by opposition lawmakers yesterday following clashes between lawmakers in the morning, as Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members tried to block Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislators from entering the chamber. Parts of the Public Officials Election and Recall Act (公職人員選舉罷免法) and Constitutional Court Procedure Act (憲法訴訟法) passed the third reading yesterday. The legislature was still voting on various amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) as of press time last night, after the session was extended to midnight. Amendments to Article 4
RSS