A potential row between the New Party and its presidential candidate, Li Ao (李敖), which could have taken the party out of the presidential race, appeared to be averted yesterday after the party announced that legislator Elmer Fung (馮滬祥) would be Li's running mate.
"Our presidential ticket has been officially decided, and we are now launching our challenge," announced Lee Ching-hua (
The decision ended speculation that Li -- who is not a New Party member himself -- might quit the campaign over what he had said was the party's reluctance to cooperate with him over the issue.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
Li, who has refused to join the New Party despite representing the party in the campaign, initially had three favored choices -- Lee, former DPP spokeswoman Sisy Chen (
While Lee and Chang turned down the offer, the choice of Chen met with strong opposition within the party due to her ideological differences.
After Lee said the New Party might be forced to quit the presidential campaign, Fung offered to be Li's running mate.
Li agreed to accept Fung if the party recommended him officially.
Yesterday, Lee admitted that Fung was in fact on a list of 14 people whom he had proposed to Li as candidates, but that Fung had not been shortlisted.
Li did not explain why he had not considered Fung initially, though he apparently is aware of the controversy surrounding him.
"Fung is a very handsome and knowledgeable man, but he is also much misunderstood -- being suspected of having too close a relationship with the People's Republic of China," Li said.
Fung, who leads a private group promoting unification between Taiwan and China, has made frequent visits to Beijing and has met with senior Communist officials.
Fung explained that the fact he has kept close contact with Beijing does not mean he is "pro-Chinese communists" or supports "hasty unification."
"The Cold War is over and confrontation should be replaced with negotiation," Fung said. Fung, who was a National Assembly deputy before being elected a legislator, worked as secretary to the late President Chiang Ching-kuo (
Fung allegedly played a part in the KMT-sponsored suppression of academic freedom at National Taiwan University in 1973, now known as the "philosophy department incident."
In 1985, Fung also sued a magazine headed by Chen Shui-bian (
Chen was sentenced to one year in jail, and ordered to pay Fung NT$2 million. The verdict, which appeared to mix elements of a criminal trial with civil responsibility, was allegedly the result of political interference.
Super Typhoon Kong-rey is the largest cyclone to impact Taiwan in 27 years, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. Kong-rey’s radius of maximum wind (RMW) — the distance between the center of a cyclone and its band of strongest winds — has expanded to 320km, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張竣堯) said. The last time a typhoon of comparable strength with an RMW larger than 300km made landfall in Taiwan was Typhoon Herb in 1996, he said. Herb made landfall between Keelung and Suao (蘇澳) in Yilan County with an RMW of 350km, Chang said. The weather station in Alishan (阿里山) recorded 1.09m of
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
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday at 5:30pm issued a sea warning for Typhoon Kong-rey as the storm drew closer to the east coast. As of 8pm yesterday, the storm was 670km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻) and traveling northwest at 12kph to 16kph. It was packing maximum sustained winds of 162kph and gusts of up to 198kph, the CWA said. A land warning might be issued this morning for the storm, which is expected to have the strongest impact on Taiwan from tonight to early Friday morning, the agency said. Orchid Island (Lanyu, 蘭嶼) and Green Island (綠島) canceled classes and work
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
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