Former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday confirmed that he would run for a spot on the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Central Standing Committee.
The move could give the one-time presidential candidate, who had vowed to back out of politics following his loss in the 2008 presidential election, more sway over an increasingly confident DPP heading into November’s special municipality elections.
Last month, a three day sit-in supporting a referendum on a proposed economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) with China planned by Hsieh, who currently heads the non-profit Taiwan Shadow Government, attracted the support of thousands.
Nominations for the DPP’s three committees — the Central Executive Committee, Central Standing Committee and Central Evaluation Committee — opened yesterday and will close on Friday.
On July 18, a full meeting of the DPP’s National Convention will elect 30 members for the executive committee and 11 members for the evaluation committee. Executive committee members will then conduct an internal vote and elect 10 standing committee members, which have the authority to decide on party policies and initiatives.
Both former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and former premier Yu Shyi-kun (游錫堃) are two other potential contenders for a spot on the decision-making body.
DPP Legislator Gao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) said the standing committee would likely play an important part in the year-end elections, where the DPP is aiming to win at least three of the five mayoral seats.
Sources close to Lu did not confirm whether she would stand, despite an article in the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) yesterday that claimed the former vice president had already made her decision to run.
Yu, who is currently traveling in the US after his failed bid to be the DPP’s mayoral candidate in Sinbei City, could not be reached for comment.
In related news, DPP spokesperson Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) said yesterday the party’s platform for the year-end elections would focus on local issues, instead of being defined by its views on an ECFA.
Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌), who is running for re-election, said on Sunday that his DPP counterpart, former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), owed Taipei residents an explanation on his attitude toward the ECFA, which the government wants to sign later this month.
Responding to his comments, Tsai Chi-chang accused Hau of “political pandering” and said he should instead be fighting an election battle based on his achievements as Taipei mayor over the past four years.
While the DPP would not rule out talking about the ECFA, it chose to fight the elections based on providing a “happy lifestyle,” the spokesperson added.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
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