New Power Party (NPP) Legislator Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) yesterday said that she would leave the party in the hope that her departure will end conflict within the party.
She would be the second lawmaker to leave the NPP over internal division following Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐), who earlier this month announced that he would leave the party to support President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in her re-election bid.
“It was a difficult decision, but it was something I had to do, or the party would remain trapped in a standoff and be unable to move forward,” Hung said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
With her and Lim gone, the party’s path should become “very clear,” she said.
Echoing Lim, Hung said she would not join the DPP, but run as an independent in next year’s presidential an legislative elections.
Hung made the announcement at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei after the NPP’s decisionmaking committee met for nearly three hours to discuss its next steps following Chiu Hsien-chih’s (邱顯智) resignation as party chairman.
“I believe the key reason behind his resignation was that he was unable to resolve differences within the party over its strategies,” Hung said.
The committee decided to call on Chiu to remain as chairman, but refused to discuss ways to resolve underlying issues that possibly led to his resignation, she said.
Party members are divided over whether to collaborate with other pan-green camp parties to pool votes in the elections or whether to focus election resources on legislators-at-large or on constituency-based candidates, Hung said.
“My departure is perhaps good for the party, because it would be able to move in the direction it wants,” she added.
She apologized to NPP members for her decision and wished the party success.
“My generation has not given up. We simply moved on to a different place,” she said.
NPP spokesman Chen Chih-ming (陳志明) said the party has no comment on Hung’s departure, as it has no chairperson.
Party members are trying to reach Chiu to urge him to resume the chairmanship, he said.
The committee also decided to continue talks with the DPP and other parties on collaborating to promote bills, based on a decision Chiu had previously made, Chen said.
While there is no acting chairperson, party affairs are being handled by NPP Secretary-General Chen Meng-hsiu (陳孟秀), he added.
INFRASTRUCTURE: Work on the second segment, from Kaohsiung to Pingtung, is expected to begin in 2028 and be completed by 2039, the railway bureau said Planned high-speed rail (HSR) extensions would blanket Taiwan proper in four 90-minute commute blocs to facilitate regional economic and livelihood integration, Railway Bureau Deputy Director-General Yang Cheng-chun (楊正君) said in an interview published yesterday. A project to extend the high-speed rail from Zuoying Station in Kaohsiung to Pingtung County’s Lioukuaicuo Township (六塊厝) is the first part of the bureau’s greater plan to expand rail coverage, he told the Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times). The bureau’s long-term plan is to build a loop to circle Taiwan proper that would consist of four sections running from Taipei to Hualien, Hualien to
A relatively large earthquake may strike within the next two weeks, following a magnitude 5.2 temblor that shook Taitung County this morning, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. An earthquake struck at 8:18am today 10.2km west of Taitung County Hall in Taitung City at a relatively shallow depth of 6.5km, CWA data showed. The largest intensity of 4 was felt in Taitung and Pingtung counties, which received an alert notice, while areas north of Taichung did not feel any shaking, the CWA said. The earthquake was the result of the collision between the Philippine Plate and the Eurasian Plate, the agency said, adding
Snow fell in the mountainous areas of northern, central and eastern Taiwan in the early hours of yesterday, as cold air currents moved south. In the northern municipality of Taoyuan, snow started falling at about 6am in Fusing District (復興), district head Su Tso-hsi (蘇佐璽) said. By 10am, Lalashan National Forest Recreation Area, as well as Hualing (華陵), Sanguang (三光) and Gaoyi (高義) boroughs had seen snowfall, Su said. In central Taiwan, Shei-Pa National Park in Miaoli County and Hehuanshan National Forest Recreation Area in Nantou County saw snowfall of 5cm and 6cm respectively, by 10am, staff at the parks said. It began snowing
The 2025 Kaohsiung Wonderland–Winter Amusement Park event has teamed up with the Japanese manga series Chiikawa this year for its opening at Love River Bay yesterday, attracting more than 10,000 visitors, the city government said. Following the success of the “2024 Kaohsiung Wonderland” collaboration with a giant inflatable yellow duck installation designed by Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman, this year the Kaohsiung Tourism Bureau collaborated with Chiikawa by Japanese illustrator Nagano to present two giant inflatable characters. Two inflatable floats — the main character, Chiikwa, a white bear-like creature with round ears, and Hachiware, a white cat with a blue-tipped tail
RSS