Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Deputy Secretary-General Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) has cleared out his office at party headquarters, in a sign that infighting may have escalated over the party’s nomination for the year-end Tainan County commissioner election.
Asked for comment, Chen Chi-mai said he was no longer the party’s deputy secretary-general.
DPP Spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) yesterday confirmed that Chen had cleared out his office.
Chen had been exhausted and taken leave for health reasons over the past three or four weeks, Cheng said.
Asked whether Chen had turned in his resignation, Cheng said: “I would have to confirm with Chairperson Tsai [Ing-wen (蔡英文)] whether Chen’s resignation has been approved.”
Upon hearing the news, Huang Chin-lin (黃慶林), director of the DPP’s Taipei branch, said: “The party headquarters can just go ahead and fill up with New Tide faction [members] and everyone else can just leave.”
Chen Chi-mai is highly capable and it would be a shame to see him leave, Huang said.
“But he cannot bring his skills into full play because the chairperson doesn’t listen to him,” he said.
Huang said Chen Chi-mai had told him in a phone call last Wednesday that he felt powerless and would soon leave party headquarters.
DPP Legislator Kao Jyh-peng (高志鵬) said yesterday that Chen Chi-mai had wanted to leave for a long time.
“It may be good for him to go ... It’s also a good thing to let the New Tide faction completely run the party and shoulder all the responsibility — just like the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT),” he said.
Factions have long played a role within the DPP, particularly in the distribution of party resources and positions, including the heads of party departments and membership in the Central Standing Committee and other bodies.
The New Tide faction was seen as the DPP’s most organized faction, but in July 2006 the party passed a resolution dissolving all factions as part of reform efforts.
Nevertheless, the previous factional affiliations of party members are thought to have a lingering role in the party’s internal politics.
The DPP last Wednesday chose DPP Legislator Lee Chun-yi (李俊毅) to run for Tainan County commissioner.
One of Lee’s rivals for the nomination, former Presidential Office secretary-general Mark Chen (陳唐山), said he had been left out because of party infighting. He announced he would run in the election in defiance of factional forces.
Some party members have speculated that Mark Chen’s bid for the nomination was blocked by former members of the New Tide faction in favor of Lee.
The DPP headquarters yesterday stood by its nomination of Lee. Lee may have a lower support rate than Mark Chen in some opinion polls, but the party only uses such polls as a reference, it said.
According to a poll conducted by the Chinese-language China Times, Lee and Mark Chen’s approval ratings are 15 percent and 25 percent respectively.
“From the past few elections we know that opinion polls can only be used as a reference. The results of the polls can differ among media with different political affiliations, so we do not view a single poll as the standard,” Cheng said yesterday.
Lee said yesterday he had visited Tsai to discuss the situation in Tainan.
“Tainan supporters respect the party’s [nomination], but some have worries about Mark Chen’s [decision to run],” Lee said.
Tsai was quoted by Lee as saying that she would shoulder the responsibility for any difficulties that arise over the nomination, but he added, "I don't know in what form."
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
RETHINK? The defense ministry and Navy Command Headquarters could take over the indigenous submarine project and change its production timeline, a source said Admiral Huang Shu-kuang’s (黃曙光) resignation as head of the Indigenous Submarine Program and as a member of the National Security Council could affect the production of submarines, a source said yesterday. Huang in a statement last night said he had decided to resign due to national security concerns while expressing the hope that it would put a stop to political wrangling that only undermines the advancement of the nation’s defense capabilities. Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) yesterday said that the admiral, her older brother, felt it was time for him to step down and that he had completed what he
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft