The Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) chairmanship hand-over ceremony is slated to take place next Thursday, the party's acting chairwoman Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) announced yesterday.
Given that Lu and newly elected chairman Yu Shyi-kun previously had disagreed on the date of the hand-over, Yu yesterday went to DPP headquarters to speak with Lu about the issue, saying that he would respect her decision on the issue.
Lu had originally planned to stay on in the position until Feb. 8, while Yu wanted the hand-over be completed before the Lunar New Year.
After the DPP's weekly central standing committee yesterday, Lu announced that she would transfer power to Yu next Thursday in a ceremony at 10am.
"Although [the ceremony date] is a petty thing, I think it is necessary to make the course of decision-making clear," Lu said.
Meanwhile, during the meeting of the central standing committee, committee member Chou Ching-yu (周清玉) proposed that party members who had publicly denounced Lu should be dealt with.
Although no names were mentioned, it was apparent that Chou was referring to former chief convener of the DPP's New Tide faction Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康).
After Lu took up the acting chairwoman position, Tuan said "there must be a devil if the nation is about to perish," a Chinese proverb that roughly translates as evil appears before a nation's downfall, insinuating that Lu's attitude signalled the country's demise.
Many of Lu's supporters protested yesterday afternoon in front of the DPP's headquarters, asking that Tuan be expelled, saying that Tuan often made damaging remarks about the DPP and its leaders.
Lu yesterday said she would not ask the party to punish Tuan over the comments, but she wanted to urge political figures not to make such comments via the media.
"I hope that people can be cautious about what they say and not reveal their discrimination against women, otherwise, the inappropriate remarks will only destroy their own image,"Lu said.
Lu yesterday also said that the DPP will prohibit its members from paying the annual membership fees of other members.
Previously, some people in the DPP would pay the annual fees for others, so he or she can control votes in primaries or other elections. To make it more convenient for members to pay their fees, the DPP will collect annual fees through Chunghwa Post Co Ltd, which has more than 20 million accounts and 1,382 branches nationwide. The new regulation will be implemented on Jan. 1 next year.
TENSIONS: The Chinese aircraft and vessels were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a joint air and sea military exercise, the Ministry of National Defense said A relatively large number of Chinese military aircraft and vessels were detected in Taiwan’s vicinity yesterday morning, apparently en route to a Chinese military exercise in the western Pacific, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) said. In a statement, the ministry said 36 Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) aircraft, including J-16 fighters and nuclear-capable H-6 bombers, crossed the median line of the Taiwan Strait or an extension of it, and were detected in the southern and southeastern parts of Taiwan’s air defense identification zone (ADIZ) from 5:20am to 9:30am yesterday. They were headed toward the western Pacific to take part in a
Honor guards are to stop performing changing of the guard ceremonies around a statue of Chiang Kai-shek (蔣介石) to avoid “worshiping authoritarianism,” the Ministry of Culture said yesterday. The fate of the bronze statue has long been the subject of fierce and polarizing debate in Taiwan, which has transformed from an autocracy under Chiang into one of Asia’s most vibrant democracies. The changing of the guard each hour at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei is a major tourist attraction, but starting from 9am on Monday, the ceremony is to be moved outdoors to Democracy Boulevard, outside the eponymous blue-and-white memorial
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) supports peaceful unification with China, and President William Lai (賴清德) is “a bit naive” for being a “practical worker for Taiwanese independence,” former president Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said in an interview published yesterday. Asked about whether the KMT is on the same page as the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on the issue of Taiwanese independence or unification with China, Ma told the Malaysian Chinese-language newspaper Sin Chew Daily that they are not. While the KMT supports peaceful unification and is against unification by force, the DPP opposes unification as such and
CASES SLOWING: Although weekly COVID-19 cases are rising, the growth rate has been falling, from 90 percent to 30 percent, 14 percent and 6 percent, the CDC said COVID-19 hospitalizations last week rose 6 percent to 987, while deaths soared 55 percent to 99, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday, adding that the recent wave of infections would likely peak this week. People aged 65 or older accounted for 79 percent of the hospitalizations and 90 percent of the deaths, the majority of whom have or had underlying health conditions, CDC data showed. The youngest hospitalized case last week was a six-month-old, who was born preterm and was unvaccinated, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. The infant had a fever, coughing and a runny nose early this month, but