The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday announced some of its candidates for the year-end county commissioner and mayoral elections, and vowed to fully participate in the elections.
The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday also announced that it will collaborate with the People First Party (PFP) in nominating a candidate for the Hsinchu County commissioner's post, challenging Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) incumbent Cheng Yung-chin (鄭永金).
TSU caucus whip Lo Chih-ming (羅志明) yesterday said that the party is evaluating the possibility of TSU candidates running in each district. The party may also enlist TSU Secretary-General Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) to run for Keelung mayor and former TSU legislator Chien Lin Hui-chien (錢林慧君) to run for Tainan mayor.
Former TSU legislator Cheng Cheng-lung (程振隆) will run for the Yunlin County commissionership. It is unclear at this point who will run against him, as the other parties have yet to announce their candidates for the position. The post is currently unfilled. In addition, TSU Legislator Ho Min-hao (何敏豪) will be running against Jason Hu (胡志強) for Taichung mayor. According to Chen, the final nomination list will be announced after candidates for National Assembly elections are nominated on May 14.
The TSU will work with the DPP in nominating a slate of nominees for that election.
"Basically we will still negotiate with the DPP over the nomination list out of courtesy, but the TSU will not make too many concessions to the DPP this time," Chen said. "The TSU has its own platform and I think we have a good chance in smaller counties and cities."
Former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) will make public other nominees next Friday, Chen said.
Meanwhile, the DPP and the PFP are working together to get KMT Legislator Chiu Ching-chun (邱鏡淳) to withdraw from the KMT's primary for the Hsinchu County commissionership and defect to the DPP. Chiu is challenging fellow KMT member and Hsinchu County Commissioner Cheng Yung-chin for the position.
However, Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), a spokesperson for the DPP's information and culture department said yesterday that although the party contacted Chiu, this did not signal the beginning of cross-party cooperation between the DPP and the PFP.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry