The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) announced its 10-member legislators-at-large list yesterday and said it hoped to surpass the 5 percent threshold for a legislator-at-large seat and win at least two seats in the January legislative elections.
Hsu Chun-hsin (許忠信), an economics professor, and Huang Wen-ling (黃文玲), a lawyer, were the top two candidates on the list that includes five male and five female candidates, TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) told a press conference.
“We are very confident that we can win more than 5 percent of the party votes and win at least two legislative seats,” said Huang Kun-huei, who was placed third on the list.
A more ambitious goal would be winning three seats, a minimum requirement for a party to establish a caucus in the legislature, Huang said.
Based on turnout rates in the last legislative elections, the TSU will need between 500,000 and 600,000 party votes, he said, adding that it would take another 160,000 votes to win an extra seat.
The TSU would implement an innovative way to maximize its influence in the legislature if it won a pair of seats by splitting the four-year term so the party would have four members serving two years each as legislators, Huang Kun-huei said.
The TSU chairman reiterated that the party is urging its supporters to vote for Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in the presidential election and DPP legislative candidates in local districts.
The TSU is focusing on garnering party votes and so it did not nominate candidates to run for the nation’s 73 direct legislative seats.
The TSU is the second party to unveil its legislators-at-large list after the DPP. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the People First Party are expected to announce their lists later.
CAUTION: Based on intelligence from the nation’s security agencies, MOFA has cautioned Taiwanese travelers about heightened safety risks in China-friendly countries The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday urged Taiwanese to be aware of their safety when traveling abroad, especially in countries that are friendly to China. China in June last year issued 22 guidelines that allow its courts to try in absentia and sentence to death so-called “diehard” Taiwanese independence activists, even though Chinese courts have no jurisdiction in Taiwan. Late last month, a senior Chinese official gave closed-door instructions to state security units to implement the guidelines in countries friendly to China, a government memo and a senior Taiwan security official said, based on information gathered by Taiwan’s intelligence agency. The
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, said yesterday that it is looking to hire 8,000 people this year, at a time when the tech giant is expanding production capacity to maintain its lead over competitors. To attract talent, TSMC would launch a large-scale recruitment campaign on campuses across Taiwan, where a newly recruited engineer with a master’s degree could expect to receive an average salary of NT$2.2 million (US$60,912), which is much higher than the 2023 national average of NT$709,000 for those in the same category, according to government statistics. TSMC, which accounted for more than 60 percent
Tung Tzu-hsien (童子賢), a Taiwanese businessman and deputy convener of the nation’s National Climate Change Committee, said yesterday that “electrical power is national power” and nuclear energy is “very important to Taiwan.” Tung made the remarks, suggesting that his views do not align with the country’s current official policy of phasing out nuclear energy, at a forum organized by the Taiwan People’s Party titled “Challenges and Prospects of Taiwan’s AI Industry and Energy Policy.” “Taiwan is currently pursuing industries with high added- value and is developing vigorously, and this all requires electricity,” said the chairman