The Republic Party yesterday announced its legislator-at-large list, including Chen Hu-men (陳虎門), a former intelligence official who was jailed over his involvement in the assassination of a California-based journalist during the Martial Law era.
Lawyer Chen Han-chou (陳漢洲) heads the list, with labor union representative Lin Hsi-wei (林錫維) ranking second.
Republic Party Chairperson Hsu Hsin-ying (徐欣瑩) said the party hopes voters would give its candidates an opportunity to enter the Legislative Yuan and use their professional backgrounds to increase its effectiveness and address the nation’s problems.
“This time, we have made sure to include people with a background in the military and intelligence, because the government has neglected this area for a long time,” Hsu said.
Chen is ranked third on the party’s list, while Lee Tien-tuo (李天鐸) — a former National Security Bureau colonel — is ranked fifth.
Chen spent time in prison in the 1980s for his role in training the assassins of Henry Liu (劉宜良) after Liu published an unauthorized biography of then-president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國).
The involvement of intelligence agency personnel in the incident — known as the Jiangnan case, a reference to Liu’s pen name — created tensions in relations with the US because of Liu’s status as a naturalized US citizen and the fact that he was killed on US soil.
Chen is to register under the name Chen Yi-chiao (陳弈樵), which he said he adopted following his time in prison.
He is rumored to have been selected because of a close relationship with Buddhist leader Miao Tien (妙天), who is also a former intelligence official, media reports said.
Miao Tien is Hsu’s Buddhist master and is rumored to have close ties to party officials.
Hsu — who is the running mate of People First Party (PFP) presidential candidate James Soong (宋楚瑜) — denied rumors that her party had nominated a separate slate of at-large district candidates after negotiations with the PFP broke down.
Today is the deadline for registering candidates, with the PFP announcing its slate on Tuesday.
Separately, the New Power Party (NPP) announced a slate of eight “task-oriented” legislative district candidates to put its number of district candidates above the 10-candidate threshold required to be eligible to allocate at-large legislators.
In response to complaints from pan-green candidates in districts shared between the NPP and other opposition parties that they had not been consulted beforehand, NPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) reiterated the party’s stance that the candidates would not campaign for themselves, instead seeking to win the NPP more votes on the at-large legislative ballot.
If pan-green candidates still have concerns, NPP candidates would be willing to campaign for them, he said.
Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China when traveling in countries with close ties to Beijing, Taiwan Association of University Professors deputy chairman Chen Li-fu (陳俐甫) said on Friday. Chen’s comments came after China on Friday last week announced new judicial guidelines targeting Taiwanese independence advocates. Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Djibouti are among the countries where Taiwanese could risk being extradited to China, he said. The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday elevated the travel alert for China, Hong Kong and Macau to “orange” after Beijing announced its guidelines to “severely punish Taiwanese independence diehards for splitting the country and inciting secession.” Extradition treaties
Taiwan and Thailand have signed an agreement to promote and protect bilateral investment and trade, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN) said on Friday. The agreement on “Promotion and Protection of Investments” was signed by Representative to Thailand Chang Chun-fu (張俊福) and Thailand Trade and Economic Office in Taipei executive director Narong Boonsatheanwong on Thursday, the OTN said in a news release. Thailand has become the fifth trading partner to sign an investment agreement with Taiwan since 2016, following earlier agreements with the Philippines, India, Vietnam and Canada, the OTN said. The deal marks a significant milestone in the development of
The entire Alishan Forest Railway line is to reopen for the first time in 15 years on Saturday, with tickets to go on sale at 2pm today. The historic railway from Chiayi to Alishan (阿里山) is finally set to reopen after the completion of the final No. 42 tunnel, Alishan Forest Railway and Cultural Heritage Office Deputy Director-General Chou Heng-kai (周恆凱) said. It is to run on a new timetable, with four trains daily, he said. The 9am train is to depart from Chiayi Railway Station bound for Shizilu Station (十字路), while the 10am train departing from Chiayi is to go all the
FLU CONTINUES: Hospitals reported 101,091 visits for flu-like illnesses last week, while 68 severe cases and 16 flu-related deaths were also reported, the CDC said The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) yesterday reported 932 hospitalizations due to COVID-19 and 64 related deaths for last week, adding that the number of people who had contracted new SARS-CoV-2 subvariants KP.2 and LB.1 has increased. The number of people hospitalized due to COVID-19 increased from 815 in the previous week to 932 last week, while 90 percent of the 64 deceased were aged 65 or older, CDC physician Lin Yung-ching (林詠青) said. JN.1 was still the dominant variant among local and imported cases in the past four weeks, while KP.2 was the second-most common, Lin said. Cases with the LB.1 subvariant