Chai Trong-rong (蔡同榮) dropped out of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairmanship race yesterday, saying his decision had met the expectations of independence supporters.
A close aide to Chai, who wished to remain anonymous, told the Taipei Times that Chai thought it would be for the best if he and former senior presidential adviser Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) could reach a deal on a single candidate because they are both die-hard independence activists.
However, with Koo showing no sign of backing down, Chai had no choice but to withdraw, the aide said.
Besides, as Koo is many years Chai’s senior, it was only proper for Chai to pull out and it was the expectation of pro-independence heavyweights to see only one of them vie for the position, the aide said.
But the aide denied the two men had struck a deal and said that Chai would stump for Koo and would not serve as Koo’s deputy if Koo was elected.
Koo’s campaign told reporters that the two men met yesterday to discuss the issue and then decided to “respond positively to members’ concern over the party’s future development.”
Koo and Chai are scheduled to make a joint announcement early today.
Yen Sheng-kuan (顏聖冠), director of the DPP’s Culture and Information Department, said that the election will be held on Sunday as scheduled and Chai will not get his NT$1.5 million (US$49,000) deposit back.
Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), the other candidate for the DPP’s top job, called for party factions to cooperate yesterday.
She said all sides should work together to help the party select candidates for next year’s mayoral and county comissioners elections.
Tsai said the party can no longer feel sorry for itself following its recent losses. She pledged to reform the party’s structure if elected, and take advantage of the party’s experience over the past eight years to make it more “combative.”
To solicit more support for the party, she said she would like to see the DPP allocate more resources to local governments controlled by the party.
Tsai made the remarks when she visited the DPP chapter in Keelung City yesterday morning.
While chapter members harshly criticized the party, especially factional infighting and corruption, Tsai said factions were indeed a problem but she thought they could cooperate. One way to curb factional infighting was to examine the party’s nomination system, she said.
Tsai also promised to closely monitor the performance of the incoming Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) administration, especially its cross-strait policy.
The DPP must protect Taiwan and its sovereignty, Tsai said, insist on its ideals and take good care of the disadvantaged in the globalization age.
WANG RELEASED: A police investigation showed that an organized crime group allegedly taught their clients how to pretend to be sick during medical exams Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) and 11 others were released on bail yesterday, after being questioned for allegedly dodging compulsory military service or forging documents to help others avoid serving. Wang, 33, was catapulted into stardom for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代). Lately, he has been focusing on developing his entertainment career in China. The New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office last month began investigating an organized crime group that is allegedly helping men dodge compulsory military service using falsified documents. Police in New Taipei City Yonghe Precinct at the end of last month arrested the main suspect,
A cat named Mikan (蜜柑) has brought in revenue of more than NT$10 million (US$305,390) for the Kaohsiung MRT last year. Mikan, born on April 4, 2020, was a stray cat before being adopted by personnel of Kaohsiung MRT’s Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station. Mikan was named after a Japanese term for mandarin orange due to his color and because he looks like an orange when curled up. He was named “station master” of Ciaotou Sugar Refinery Station in September 2020, and has since become famous. With Kaohsiung MRT’s branding, along with the release of a set of cultural and creative products, station master Mikan
Eleven people, including actor Darren Wang (王大陸), were taken into custody today for questioning regarding the evasion of compulsory military service and document forgery, the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said. Eight of the people, including Wang, are suspected of evading military service, while three are suspected of forging medical documents to assist them, the report said. They are all being questioned by police and would later be transferred to the prosecutors’ office for further investigation. Three men surnamed Lee (李), Chang (張) and Lin (林) are suspected of improperly assisting conscripts in changing their military classification from “stand-by
LITTORAL REGIMENTS: The US Marine Corps is transitioning to an ‘island hopping’ strategy to counterattack Beijing’s area denial strategy The US Marine Corps (USMC) has introduced new anti-drone systems to bolster air defense in the Pacific island chain amid growing Chinese military influence in the region, The Telegraph reported on Sunday. The new Marine Air Defense Integrated System (MADIS) Mk 1 is being developed to counter “the growing menace of unmanned aerial systems,” it cited the Marine Corps as saying. China has constructed a powerful defense mechanism in the Pacific Ocean west of the first island chain by deploying weapons such as rockets, submarines and anti-ship missiles — which is part of its anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) strategy against adversaries — the
RSS