The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) should consider changing its legislator-at-large list for January’s legislative elections to avoid alienating supporters, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said in a statement from jail yesterday.
Joining the chorus of calls asking the party to reconsider the list of nominees it released on June 30, Chen said there was no reason why several professionals such as Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英), a women’s equality advocate, were omitted from the top 16 “safe list” of a roster heavily populated by career politicians.
“The list is definitely not the best possible roster and should not be outshone by the Chinese Nationalist Party [KMT]. There is still time and opportunity to make slight changes,” wrote Chen, a former DPP chairman.
His comments could provide critics of the list, which include civic groups and lawmakers who were left off the roster, with ammunition to attack DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) picks.
The roster — and especially the top 16 of the 34 more “guaranteed spots” — is seen as symbolic of factionalism in the DPP.
Chen said Tsai appears to have fallen prey to such pressure, adding that appointing factional representatives and her own aides to top spots at the expense of “more qualified people” was not necessarily the wisest choice.
“Some of the candidates proposed by DPP factions are better suited to run in district elections and it would be a pity to see them avoid the [ballot box],” Chen wrote.
“And if Tsai is so sure of winning, why didn’t she place more of her close aides on the fringes of the list?” he said.
Chen’s remarks on the internal party power struggle follow a recent increase in the quantity of his writings, a move that has landed him in hot water with authorities at Taipei Prison.
Two of his articles were blocked and censored by prison authorities in the past two months, moves that Chen’s allies have called illegal and a violation of the constitutionally protected freedom of expression.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
A magnitude 4.3 earthquake struck eastern Taiwan's Hualien County at 8:31am today, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). The epicenter of the temblor was located in Hualien County, about 70.3 kilometers south southwest of Hualien County Hall, at a depth of 23.2km, according to the administration. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The earthquake's intensity, which gauges the actual effect of a temblor, was highest in Taitung County, where it measured 3 on Taiwan's 7-tier intensity scale. The quake also measured an intensity of 2 in Hualien and Nantou counties, the CWA said.
The Overseas Community Affairs Council (OCAC) yesterday announced a fundraising campaign to support survivors of the magnitude 7.7 earthquake that struck Myanmar on March 28, with two prayer events scheduled in Taipei and Taichung later this week. “While initial rescue operations have concluded [in Myanmar], many survivors are now facing increasingly difficult living conditions,” OCAC Minister Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) told a news conference in Taipei. The fundraising campaign, which runs through May 31, is focused on supporting the reconstruction of damaged overseas compatriot schools, assisting students from Myanmar in Taiwan, and providing essential items, such as drinking water, food and medical supplies,
New Party Deputy Secretary-General You Chih-pin (游智彬) this morning went to the National Immigration Agency (NIA) to “turn himself in” after being notified that he had failed to provide proof of having renounced his Chinese household registration. He was one of more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from China who were informed by the NIA that their Taiwanese citizenship might be revoked if they fail to provide the proof in three months, people familiar with the matter said. You said he has proof that he had renounced his Chinese household registration and demanded the NIA provide proof that he still had Chinese
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