New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) has triggered speculation over his stance on Saturday’s referendums after writing on social media that voters should exercise their independent judgement.
On the ballot are to be questions related to banning the importation of pork containing traces of the leanness-enhancing feed additive ractopamine, relocating a natural gas terminal project to protect algal reefs off Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音), restarting construction of the Fourth Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City’s Gongliao District (貢寮) and holding referendums alongside elections.
Writing on Facebook on Monday evening, Hou, a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), called on the public to make up their own minds on the referendums, saying that no one has the right to tell someone else how to vote.
Photo: CNA
“The referendums should be held after the public has calmly debated the issues with the help of experts, reason and science... Instead, they are treated as a straight-ticket vote and voters are being spoon-fed choices,” he wrote.
“The reason for holding a referendum is to make known the people’s will, and for them to weigh the pros and cons of each proposition in their own mind before arriving at a decision,” he said.
The nation cannot afford divisions and internal strife, Hou said.
His unchanging political belief is to “put the people’s welfare above all else, including the party, factions and my personal ambitions,” he wrote.
Hou told a news conference at the Shulin Civil Sports Center yesterday that the post “conveys the core belief that the people should decide after debating the issues with reason, science and logic.”
Asked to comment on Hou’s post, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) told a news conference at the party’s headquarters in Taipei that the KMT “has a duty to courageously state its position regarding the issues.”
Hou has a right to express his opinion to the party’s supporters, but politicians need to exercise the art of speaking carefully in a multi-party democracy, KMT caucus convener Alex Fai (費鴻泰) said.
“Of course, the party hopes that Hou would clearly communicate his stance. New Taipei City voters are an important part of the party’s base and a majority of the public supports the four referendums,” KMT Legislator Lai Shyh-bao (賴士葆) said.
Later yesterday, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsan (鄭文燦), of the Democratic Progressive Party, told a news conference at city hall that Hou’s post shows that he opposes the KMT’s position on the referendums.
Numerous county commissioners and mayors have demurred from the KMT’s line of voting yes on all four referendums and Hou is expressing his dissent in a polite way, Cheng said.
The four referendums reflect the political extremism that hijacked the KMT under then-chairman Johnny Chiang (江啟臣), Cheng added.
US President Donald Trump yesterday announced sweeping "reciprocal tariffs" on US trading partners, including a 32 percent tax on goods from Taiwan that is set to take effect on Wednesday. At a Rose Garden event, Trump declared a 10 percent baseline tax on imports from all countries, with the White House saying it would take effect on Saturday. Countries with larger trade surpluses with the US would face higher duties beginning on Wednesday, including Taiwan (32 percent), China (34 percent), Japan (24 percent), South Korea (25 percent), Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent). Canada and Mexico, the two largest US trading
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS