The New Party yesterday officially nominated Youth Corps director Yang Shih-kuang (楊世光) as its candidate for next year’s presidential election, with Yang saying that if elected, his priority would be to have President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) “answer to the law.”
He would grant residency permits to 10,000 Chinese every year and ask Washington for a 20 percent discount on its arms sale packages, Yang told a news conference at party headquarters in Taipei.
Some people might say that the New Party just wants to make waves, but as a political party, it is obligated to nominate a presidential candidate in a society where only calls for Taiwanese independence are allowed, while calls for unification are prohibited, New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明) said.
Photo: Chen Yu-fu, Taipei Times
The New Party must come out with its pro-unification stance, he added.
Yang linked supporting independence to being a “woman.”
Taiwanese politicians who espouse unification or independence often do not dare transform their words into action, he said.
“I am pro-unification. I am a man. Where are the women supporting independence?” he said.
Commenting on other potential presidential candidates, he said that Tsai is a woman, Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) “is not a woman,” former Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) “might be a man” and Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) “is likely not a woman.”
Cross-strait tensions are at the heart of the nation’s problems, as they have not only hampered the nation’s international presence for too long, but also caused rifts in society, he said.
If elected, he would make Tsai, who is “a tumor for Taiwan,” answer to the law, he said.
Taiwan yesterday condemned the recent increase in Chinese coast guard-escorted fishing vessels operating illegally in waters around the Pratas Islands (Dongsha Islands, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. Unusually large groupings of Chinese fishing vessels began to appear around the islands on Feb. 15, when at least six motherships and 29 smaller boats were sighted, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said in a news release. While CGA vessels were dispatched to expel the Chinese boats, Chinese coast guard ships trespassed into Taiwan’s restricted waters and unsuccessfully attempted to interfere, the CGA said. Due to the provocation, the CGA initiated an operation to increase
A crowd of over 200 people gathered outside the Taipei District Court as two sisters indicted for abusing a 1-year-old boy to death attended a preliminary hearing in the case yesterday afternoon. The crowd held up signs and chanted slogans calling for aggravated penalties in child abuse cases and asking for no bail and “capital punishment.” They also held white flowers in memory of the boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), who was allegedly tortured to death by the sisters in December 2023. The boy died four months after being placed in full-time foster care with the
The Shanlan Express (山嵐號), or “Mountain Mist Express,” is scheduled to launch on April 19 as part of the centennial celebration of the inauguration of the Taitung Line. The tourism express train was renovated from the Taiwan Railway Corp’s EMU500 commuter trains. It has four carriages and a seating capacity of 60 passengers. Lion Travel is arranging railway tours for the express service. Several news outlets were invited to experience the pilot tour on the new express train service, which is to operate between Hualien Railway Station and Chihshang (池上) Railway Station in Taitung County. It would also be the first tourism service
The Chinese military has boosted its capability to fight at a high tempo using the element of surprise and new technology, the Ministry of National Defense said in the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) published on Monday last week. The ministry highlighted Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) developments showing significant changes in Beijing’s strategy for war on Taiwan. The PLA has made significant headway in building capabilities for all-weather, multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, operational control and a joint air-sea blockade against Taiwan’s lines of communication, it said. The PLA has also improved its capabilities in direct amphibious assault operations aimed at seizing strategically important beaches,
RSS