After the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) suffered sweeping losses in Saturday’s legislative elections, TSU Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) said the party does not rule out disbanding.
The TSU gained only 2.51 percent of the party votes in Saturday’s legislative elections, failing short of the 5 percentage point threshold to be awarded a legislator-at-large seat and the 3.5 percentage point threshold to receive subsidies.
Neither of the two district legislative candidates nominated by the TSU were elected.
Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) resigned as TSU chairman on Monday.
In his speech, Huang recounted the TSU’s legislative achievements and said the party had “fully honored its commitment to the soil and people of Taiwan” and accomplished “its objectives for this phase” by carrying out its “founding mission to defend Taiwan’s national sovereignty and to protect the rights and welfare of the common people.”
Lin said the party will discuss the TSU’s future direction and consult former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), whom the TSU views as its spiritual leader, adding that a decision would be announced no later than Feb. 1.
The TSU was established in July 2001 after a call from Lee to create a party that would “secure democracy and strengthen Taiwan” and to give pro-localization voters another political choice besides the Democratic Progressive Party.
Lin said two paths for the TSU are under consideration.
The first strategy is to reduce TSU’s size and operations, and to continue with its signature message of resistance to China, he said.
The other option is to disband the TSU because it had fulfilled its founding mission of “helping the DPP to govern” and because the TSU “does not rule out” the alternative of “making the curtain call on a good show,” he said.
Lin said that during the eight years of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) pro-China administration, the TSU had acted as “the brake against the radical unification agenda,” and should be credited for helping to bring about the 2014 Sunflower movement.
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
RSS