Newly nominated Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) presidential candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said he would take a three-month leave of absence from his job as New Taipei City mayor, starting today, to focus on his campaign.
New Taipei City Deputy Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) will stand in for Chu during his absence.
Chu, who is only 10 months into his second four-year term, made the announcement after a meeting of the New Taipei City Council in the morning, which had been brought ahead from today.
Photo: CNA
“I was nominated on Saturday to represent the KMT in next year’s presidential election, for which I must apologize to every resident of the city because I had pledged on more than one occasion that I would not join the race,” Chu said.
“It is a painful, but necessary decision that needed to be made at such a critical moment,” he said.
Chu’s decision to throw his hat into the ring for the Jan. 16 presidential election has triggered a wave of criticism from the public and some inside the KMT, largely because of his oft-repeated promise to serve out his term as mayor.
Photo: Lo Pei-der, Taipei Times
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tuan Yi-kang’s (段宜康) on Sept. 26 estimated that Chu had made the promise 24 times between June last year and May.
Chu, who also serves as KMT chairman, said a presidential election concerns a nation’s future and its major policies, and that he must take on the responsibility of offering the public a healthier democracy.
Given the nearness of the election, Chu said he had asked his administrative officials to stand fast at their posts and work as a team.
“During this interim period, Deputy Mayor Hou will face a heavy workload, but my administration is confident of its ability to go a good job governing the municipality,” Chu said.
He said he would remain in close contact with his team through various channels, including mobile messaging app Line.
If elected president, he plans to expand many of his successful policies and experiences as mayor on a nationwide scale, Chu said.
“I also plan to bring the resources of the central government back to the city,” he added.
In a move to defuse criticism about his decision to enter the presidential race without stepping down as mayor, Chu said it is customary, at home and abroad, for politicians to run for new offices without resigning from their current posts.
“It is my belief that as long as a candidate’s team is capable of doing a good job, there is no reason why he cannot maintain stability in the city and continue to strive for the betterment of his city,” Chu said.
New Taipei City Government Information Department Director Lin Chieh-yu (林芥佑) said Chu decided not to accept a salary during his leave of absence.
“An estimated NT$570,000 due the mayor over the next three months is to be donated to the city government’s coffers,” Lin said.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS