Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (
Hsieh said Secretary-General of the Presidential Office Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭), a popular Hakka politician, became the first female mayor of a special municipality by stepping in as acting mayor of Kaohsiung after he was appointed premier in 2005.
"She followed my step in becoming the mayor," Hsieh said. "And since I was once the premier, she may become a premier, too."
"If I am elected president, the nation may also have a female Hakka president in the future," he said.
first gathering
Hsieh made the comments in a rally held in front of Hsinchu's Yimin Temple yesterday. The occasion yesterday also marked the first time that Hsieh, his running mate Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Yeh were all present at a public gathering since Hsieh's announcement of his choice of Su as his vice presidential running mate on Aug. 15.
Although Hsieh did not choose Yeh, who had expressed her interest in being Hsieh's running mate, Yeh was tapped by President Chen Shui-bian (
Hsieh has billed his union with Su and Yeh as the "golden triangle."
Yesterday's rally was held to drum up the Hakka community's support for Hsieh and Su, Hsieh's campaign office spokesman Chao Tien-lin (
ethnic harmony
Hsieh pledged to promote harmony among different ethnic groups at the rally.
"I believe in coexistence. I believe we have to prevent children from all ethnic communities in Taiwan from feeling threatened, in danger or persecuted, whether they be Hoklo, Aborigines, Hakka or Mainlanders," Hsieh said.
"This is our dream. No matter where you come from, no matter which ethnic community you were born in, we are all the same," he said.
Hsieh also vowed to oppose the idea of a cross-strait common market and unification with China advocated by his Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) counterpart, Ma Ying-jeou (
"We will never allow Chinese laborers to compete for jobs with us in Taiwan," said Hsieh. "We will never allow Chinese women to compete for Taiwanese husbands. We will never allow low-quality merchandise from China to threaten our livelihood."
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
The Taipei Zoo on Saturday said it would pursue legal action against a man who was filmed climbing over a railing to tease and feed spotted hyenas in their enclosure earlier that day. In videos uploaded to social media on Saturday, a man can be seen climbing over a protective railing and approaching a ledge above the zoo’s spotted hyena enclosure, before dropping unidentified objects down to two of the animals. The Taipei Zoo in a statement said the man’s actions were “extremely inappropriate and even illegal.” In addition to monitoring the hyenas’ health, the zoo would collect evidence provided by the public
‘SIGN OF DANGER’: Beijing has never directly named Taiwanese leaders before, so China is saying that its actions are aimed at the DPP, a foundation official said National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) yesterday accused Beijing of spreading propaganda, saying that Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had singled out President William Lai (賴清德) in his meeting with US President Joe Biden when talking about those whose “true nature” seek Taiwanese independence. The Biden-Xi meeting took place on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Peru on Saturday. “If the US cares about maintaining peace across the Taiwan Strait, it is crucial that it sees clearly the true nature of Lai and the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in seeking Taiwanese independence, handles the Taiwan question with extra
A road safety advocacy group yesterday called for reforms to the driver licensing and retraining system after a pedestrian was killed and 15 other people were injured in a two-bus collision in Taipei. “Taiwan’s driver’s licenses are among the easiest to obtain in the world, and there is no mandatory retraining system for drivers,” Taiwan Vision Zero Alliance, a group pushing to reduce pedestrian fatalities, said in a news release. Under the regulations, people who have held a standard car driver’s license for two years and have completed a driver training course are eligible to take a test
RSS