Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) has not reached a deal with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) to collaborate in the presidential and legislative elections, a TPP spokeswoman said yesterday.
The Chinese-language Mirror Media magazine earlier yesterday reported that the two parties had set timetables together.
The schedule had them unveiling their plans for the legislative elections this month and the presidential election next month, the magazine reported.
Photo: CNA
However, Ko’s campaign office on Tuesday denied the report.
“The report is pure fabrication,” Vicky Chen (陳智菡), a spokeswoman for Ko’s campaign office, told reporters. “We have no timetable for a TPP-KMT collaboration, much less a so-called ‘two-step integration.’”
“Ko’s office has its own plans and pacing, and Ko Wen-je will campaign resolutely until the end as the TPP’s candidate,” Chen said.
The office would start introducing Ko’s campaign platform this month, beginning with healthcare and long-term care policies, which would be unveiled today, she said.
While it did not elaborate on what it meant by “collaborating,” the report hinted that Ko was to be the running mate of New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜), the KMT’s presidential candidate.
The magazine referenced Ko’s comments at a campaign event in Taoyuan on Saturday.
“Naturally, political leaders can chat among themselves” as long as the discussion is not premised on “distribution of power and positions,” Ko said when asked by a reporter to comment on remarks by Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) of the KMT that a deal between Hou and Ko would be settled this month.
“Politicians don’t create the waves, they are propelled by them. Oftentimes, it’s the people that make decisions for us,” Ko said at the time.
The report also cited KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) as saying that talks with the TPP on a possible collaboration were “making progress and delivering results every day.”
The “collaboration” was made because Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘), who on Monday last week announced his presidential bid as an independent candidate, had tried to strongarm the KMT into “yielding to him,” which motivated the party to “distance itself from Gou and instead approach Ko,” Mirror Media reported, citing an unnamed KMT Central Standing Committee member.
‘DENIAL DEFENSE’: The US would increase its military presence with uncrewed ships, and submarines, while boosting defense in the Indo-Pacific, a Pete Hegseth memo said The US is reorienting its military strategy to focus primarily on deterring a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, a memo signed by US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth showed. The memo also called on Taiwan to increase its defense spending. The document, known as the “Interim National Defense Strategic Guidance,” was distributed this month and detailed the national defense plans of US President Donald Trump’s administration, an article in the Washington Post said on Saturday. It outlines how the US can prepare for a potential war with China and defend itself from threats in the “near abroad,” including Greenland and the Panama
The High Prosecutors’ Office yesterday withdrew an appeal against the acquittal of a former bank manager 22 years after his death, marking Taiwan’s first instance of prosecutors rendering posthumous justice to a wrongfully convicted defendant. Chu Ching-en (諸慶恩) — formerly a manager at the Taipei branch of BNP Paribas — was in 1999 accused by Weng Mao-chung (翁茂鍾), then-president of Chia Her Industrial Co, of forging a request for a fixed deposit of US$10 million by I-Hwa Industrial Co, a subsidiary of Chia Her, which was used as collateral. Chu was ruled not guilty in the first trial, but was found guilty
A wild live dugong was found in Taiwan for the first time in 88 years, after it was accidentally caught by a fisher’s net on Tuesday in Yilan County’s Fenniaolin (粉鳥林). This is the first sighting of the species in Taiwan since 1937, having already been considered “extinct” in the country and considered as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. A fisher surnamed Chen (陳) went to Fenniaolin to collect the fish in his netting, but instead caught a 3m long, 500kg dugong. The fisher released the animal back into the wild, not realizing it was an endangered species at
DEADLOCK: As the commission is unable to forum a quorum to review license renewal applications, the channel operators are not at fault and can air past their license date The National Communications Commission (NCC) yesterday said that the Public Television Service (PTS) and 36 other television and radio broadcasters could continue airing, despite the commission’s inability to meet a quorum to review their license renewal applications. The licenses of PTS and the other channels are set to expire between this month and June. The National Communications Commission Organization Act (國家通訊傳播委員會組織法) stipulates that the commission must meet the mandated quorum of four to hold a valid meeting. The seven-member commission currently has only three commissioners. “We have informed the channel operators of the progress we have made in reviewing their license renewal applications, and
RSS