In the face of strong opposition from the party's local factions, the ruling DPP's Central Executive Committee yesterday agreed to call upon independent legislator Hsu Tain-tsair (
The decision, however, was immediately and strongly opposed by party members from the Tainan Division, who staged a protest at the DPP's Taipei headquarters.
PHOTO: LEE HUNG-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
The demonstrators threw eggs, waved banners and burst into the headquarters where they vented their anger, yelling, "We strongly oppose the party's decision to call upon Hsu," and, "The party has ignored the voices of local party members."
After learning of the protests against him, Hsu, however, appealed to the people of Tainan to give him a "second chance."
"Don't let resentment, which arose from past elections and the growth of factions, overshadow our cooperation. There is no issue on which we cannot be reconciled since we share the same political mission," Hsu said at a press conference yesterday afternoon, adding, "It's good to be back home."
Hsu, who has recently re-registered as a DPP member, yesterday said that he could sympathize with the protesters' anger, but that he hoped they would give "political idealists" like himself a chance to strive for a better future for the DPP.
Hsu, a former DPP member who left the party in 1995 to run in the legislative elections as an independent legislator, was defeated in Tainan's 1997 mayoral election by the party's candidate, George Chang (張燦鍙). A close friend and former classmate of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Hsu refused to endorse Chen in last year's presidential election. As a result, many view him as a traitor to the party and he has especially annoyed party members in Tainan.
But Hsu's performance in the legislature has enabled him to regain the party leadership's trust, especially following Chen's hint that the party would nominate any candidates who stood a good chance of winning the election.
Brushing aside protesters' concerns, the party's deputy secretary general Hsu Yang-ming (
He said that DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (
He added that heads of the party's Tainan headquarters had also been invited to attend the Central Executive Committee meeting to present their views.
"All considerations were taken into account and the decision at the CEC meeting was reached unanimously," Hsu Yang-ming said at a press conference after the meeting.
Hsu Yang-ming added that one of the protesters supported DPP legislator Lai Ching-te (
Incumbent Tainan Mayor Chang, who is in custody on corruption charges, is likely to try to run for a second term. He has argued that to do so would be the only way to clear his name, but he will now have to run as a non-DPP candidate.
The Central Executive Committee yesterday also agreed to ask Lee Chin-yung (李進勇), mayor of Keelung, to seek reelection to his post and national baseball star Chen Yi-hsin (陳義信) to run for a DPP seat as an aboriginal legislator.
CLASH OF WORDS: While China’s foreign minister insisted the US play a constructive role with China, Rubio stressed Washington’s commitment to its allies in the region The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday affirmed and welcomed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio statements expressing the US’ “serious concern over China’s coercive actions against Taiwan” and aggressive behavior in the South China Sea, in a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart. The ministry in a news release yesterday also said that the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had stated many fallacies about Taiwan in the call. “We solemnly emphasize again that our country and the People’s Republic of China are not subordinate to each other, and it has been an objective fact for a long time, as well as
‘CHARM OFFENSIVE’: Beijing has been sending senior Chinese officials to Okinawa as part of efforts to influence public opinion against the US, the ‘Telegraph’ reported Beijing is believed to be sowing divisions in Japan’s Okinawa Prefecture to better facilitate an invasion of Taiwan, British newspaper the Telegraph reported on Saturday. Less than 750km from Taiwan, Okinawa hosts nearly 30,000 US troops who would likely “play a pivotal role should Beijing order the invasion of Taiwan,” it wrote. To prevent US intervention in an invasion, China is carrying out a “silent invasion” of Okinawa by stoking the flames of discontent among locals toward the US presence in the prefecture, it said. Beijing is also allegedly funding separatists in the region, including Chosuke Yara, the head of the Ryukyu Independence
UNITED: The premier said Trump’s tariff comments provided a great opportunity for the private and public sectors to come together to maintain the nation’s chip advantage The government is considering ways to assist the nation’s semiconductor industry or hosting collaborative projects with the private sector after US President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 100 percent tariff on chips exported to the US, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday. Trump on Monday told Republican members of the US Congress about plans to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductors, steel, aluminum, copper and pharmaceuticals “in the very near future.” “It’s time for the United States to return to the system that made us richer and more powerful than ever before,” Trump said at the Republican Issues Conference in Miami, Florida. “They
GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY: Taiwan must capitalize on the shock waves DeepSeek has sent through US markets to show it is a tech partner of Washington, a researcher said China’s reported breakthrough in artificial intelligence (AI) would prompt the US to seek a stronger alliance with Taiwan and Japan to secure its technological superiority, a Taiwanese researcher said yesterday. The launch of low-cost AI model DeepSeek (深度求索) on Monday sent US tech stocks tumbling, with chipmaker Nvidia Corp losing 16 percent of its value and the NASDAQ falling 612.46 points, or 3.07 percent, to close at 19,341.84 points. On the same day, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange Semiconductor Sector index dropped 488.7 points, or 9.15 percent, to close at 4,853.24 points. The launch of the Chinese chatbot proves that a competitor can
RSS