Social Democratic Party (SDP) founder and National Taiwan University professor Fan Yun (范雲) on Sunday criticized both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party, saying the two major parties differed little in their pro-business policies, including tax deductions for select industries and land seizures to establish industrial parks.
“The party’s aim is to incubate solidarity among all salaried employees and underprivileged people,” Fan said, adding that Taiwanese society has long suffered from economic policies that have solely benefited large businesses and a privileged few.
Founded by veteran social activists, the nascent center-left party also aims to bring social advocacy and human rights into the realm of mainstream politics.
The party’s platform focuses on five main aspects — raising wages for salaried employees, reform to the national pensions system, increasing taxes for the wealthy, transparency in politics and promotion of social diversity.
Two SDP candidates announced their intention to enter next year’s legislative contests during the party’s inaugural event on Sunday.
Attorney and women’s rights advocate Lee Yen-jong (李晏榕) announced her bid to represent Taipei’s Zhongshan (中山) and Songshan (松山) districts.
SDP Secretary-General Urda Yen (嚴婉玲) also confirmed her intention to run on the SDP ticket, although she remains undecided as to whether she would compete for a legislative district or represent the SDP on its legislator-at-large list.
Lee said she was joining the race to reform the nation’s social welfare system, saying that her experiences as a social worker and later as a lawyer have helped her empathize with the “institutionalized discrimination” that underprivileged groups endure — including victims of domestic violence and spouses from Southeast Asian nations.
Yen, a doctoral student in Taiwanese history at National Chengchi University and a former spokesperson for the Economic Democratic Union, is known as a vocal critic of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) cross-strait policies.
Yen played a leading role in the Wild Strawberries movement in 2008 — in which thousands of protesters accused the government of quenching dissent using police brutality during a visit from a delegation of Chinese officials.
ANOTHER EMERGES: The CWA yesterday said this year’s fourth storm of the typhoon season had formed in the South China Sea, but was not expected to affect Taiwan Tropical Storm Gaemi has intensified slightly as it heads toward Taiwan, where it is expected to affect the country in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 8am yesterday, the 120km-radius storm was 800km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving at 9kph northwest, the agency said. A sea warning for Gaemi could be issued tonight at the earliest, it said, adding that the storm is projected to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday or Thursday. Gaemi’s potential effect on Taiwan remains unclear, as that would depend on its direction, radius and intensity, forecasters said. Former Weather Forecast
As COVID-19 cases in Japan have been increasing for 10 consecutive weeks, people should get vaccinated before visiting the nation, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. The centers reported 773 hospitalizations and 124 deaths related to COVID-19 in Taiwan last week. CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Director Guo Hung-wei (郭宏偉) on Tuesday said the number of weekly COVID-19 cases reported in Japan has been increasing since mid-May and surpassed 55,000 cases from July 8 to July 14. The average number of COVID-19 patients at Japan’s healthcare facilities that week was also 1.39 times that of the week before and KP.3 is the dominant
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US-CHINA TRADE DISPUTE: Despite Beijing’s offer of preferential treatment, the lure of China has dimmed as Taiwanese and international investors move out Japan and the US have become the favored destinations for Taiwanese graduates as China’s attraction has waned over the years, the Ministry of Labor said. According to the ministry’s latest income and employment advisory published this month, 3,215 Taiwanese university graduates from the class of 2020 went to Japan, surpassing for the first time the 2,881 graduates who went to China. A total of 2,300 graduates from the class of 2021 went to the US, compared with the 2,262 who went to China, the document showed. The trend continued for the class of 2023, of whom 1,460 went to Japan, 1,334 went to