The New Power Party’s (NPP) decisionmaking committee yesterday elected former NPP secretary-general Kao Yu-ting (高鈺婷) as chairwoman.
Former committee members earlier this month jointly stepped down after former NPP chairman Hsu Yung-ming’s (徐永明) alleged involvement in a bribery scandal related to an ownership dispute over the Pacific Sogo Department Store chain was made public.
Hsu, who served as a legislator from February 2016 to January, was on Aug. 3 suspended from heading the party after the Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office filed a motion to detain him in connection with the case.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
In Friday’s decisionmaking committee election, Kao garnered the second-highest number of votes — 1,018 — trailing only Legislator Claire Wang (王婉諭), who received 1,071 votes.
The new 15-member committee yesterday elected Kao chairwoman, the NPP said, adding that the next party chairperson and committee elections are to be held on Feb. 28 next year.
A former engineer at the Industrial Technology Research Institute, Kao represented the NPP in this year’s legislative election in Hsinchu City, but came in third behind candidates of Taiwan’s two major parties, the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party, with 29 percent of the vote.
In the past few weeks, the NPP has seen the departure of a number of party members, including Taipei city councilors Huang Yu-fen (黃郁芬) and Lin Ying-meng (林穎孟), Miaoli County Councilor Tseng Wen-hsueh (曾玟學) and Kaohsiung City Councilor Huang Chieh (黃捷).
Kao yesterday in her first statement as chairwoman said it was regrettable that the party has lost members and support in the wake of the Sogo scandal, but it would continue to offer solutions to the nation’s problems.
“The NPP is a party that is not afraid to reflect on itself and engage in reforms,” she said, adding that it would work toward reinventing itself in the next six months.
An NPP member, commenting on condition of anonymity, said that the recent departures underscored the party’s problems, adding that the NPP lacks direction.
While Kao has the support of Legislator Chiu Hsieh-chih (邱顯智), she does not have the seniority enjoyed by Hsu or former NPP chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), the party member said, adding that time would tell if Kao can garner widespread support.
Additional reporting by CNA
The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday said it is fully aware of the situation following reports that the son of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai (薄熙來) has arrived in Taiwan and is to marry a Taiwanese. Local media reported that Bo Guagua (薄瓜瓜), son of the former member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, is to marry the granddaughter of Luodong Poh-Ai Hospital founder Hsu Wen-cheng (許文政). The pair met when studying abroad and arranged to get married this year, with the wedding breakfast to be held at The One holiday resort in Hsinchu
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon this morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan between Friday and Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The storm, which as of 8am was still 1,100km southeast of southern Taiwan, is currently expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, the CWA said. Because of its rapid speed — 28kph as of 8am — a sea warning for the storm could be issued tonight, rather than tomorrow, as previously forecast, the CWA said. In terms of its impact, Usagi is to bring scattered or
An orange gas cloud that leaked from a waste management plant yesterday morning in Taoyuan’s Guanyin District (觀音) was likely caused by acidic waste, authorities said, adding that it posed no immediate harm. The leak occurred at a plant in the district’s Environmental Science and Technology Park at about 7am, the Taoyuan Fire Department said. Firefighters discovered a cloud of unidentified orange gas leaking from a waste tank when they arrived on the site, it said, adding that they put on Level A chemical protection before entering the building. After finding there was no continuous leak, the department worked with the city’s Department
MESSAGE: The ministry said China and the Philippines are escalating regional tensions, and Taiwan should be included in dialogue mechanisms on an equal footing Taiwan has rejected renewed sovereignty claims over the South China Sea by the Philippines and China by reaffirming its sovereignty and rights under international law over the disputed area. “The Republic of China [ROC] enjoys all rights to island groups and their surrounding waters in the South China Sea in accordance with international law and maritime laws,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said in a statement yesterday. Other countries’ attempts to claim sovereignty over the South China Sea do not change the fact that the ROC holds sovereignty over the region, the ministry said. The MOFA statement came after
RSS