Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday downplayed recent comments made by a senior party official suggesting that she could be considered as the party’s candidate for the 2012 presidential elections.
Quizzed about DPP Secretary-General Wu Nai-jen’s (吳乃仁) comments at a media briefing on Wednesday, Tsai said that she had made her aims “very clear.”
“I want to be elected Sinbei City mayor and I want to realize my political goals. I want to turn Sinbei City into a first rate [municipality],” she said. “I will be responsible until the end.”
Photo: Patrick Lin, AFP
Wu said the DPP would not exclude any of the five candidates running for mayor tomorrow when it ponders its nomination for the 2012 presidential campaign.
SIMPLE LOGIC
The DPP’s logic was simple, he said. Whoever is the most likely to win a presidential election, “would most likely be our presidential candidate,” he said.
The comments caused Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) politicians to accuse both Tsai and the DPP’s Taipei City mayoral candidate, Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), of using their municipal campaigns as a springboard to the 2012 presidential election.
Expressing outrage, KMT Sinbei City mayoral candidate Eric Chu (朱立倫) said: “Serving the full term is a basic requirement and a sign of respect for voters.”
KMT Secretary-General King Pu-tsung (金溥聰) yesterday called on voters to understand the intentions of the mayoral candidates and support candidates who were truly committed to the mayorship.
COMMITTED
King said all five KMT candidates would be committed to their voters and finish their four-year terms if elected.
Su dismissed Wu’s comments and pledged his commitment.
“I don’t know what Secretary-General Wu said, but I have already promised Taipei City residents that I will finish my four-year term if elected,” said Su, who has repeatedly denied that it is his intention to join the presidential race as the DPP’s candidate in 2012.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
BEIJING’S ‘PAWN’: ‘We, as Chinese, should never forget our roots, history, culture,’ Want Want Holdings general manager Tsai Wang-ting said at a summit in China The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) yesterday condemned Want Want China Times Media Group (旺旺中時媒體集團) for making comments at the Cross-Strait Chinese Culture Summit that it said have damaged Taiwan’s sovereignty, adding that it would investigate if the group had colluded with China in the matter and contravened cross-strait regulations. The council issued a statement after Want Want Holdings (旺旺集團有限公司) general manager Tsai Wang-ting (蔡旺庭), the third son of the group’s founder, Tsai Eng-meng (蔡衍明), said at the summit last week that the group originated in “Chinese Taiwan,” and has developed and prospered in “the motherland.” “We, as Chinese, should never
‘A SURVIVAL QUESTION’: US officials have been urging the opposition KMT and TPP not to block defense spending, especially the special defense budget, an official said The US plans to ramp up weapons sales to Taiwan to a level exceeding US President Donald Trump’s first term as part of an effort to deter China as it intensifies military pressure on the nation, two US officials said on condition of anonymity. If US arms sales do accelerate, it could ease worries about the extent of Trump’s commitment to Taiwan. It would also add new friction to the tense US-China relationship. The officials said they expect US approvals for weapons sales to Taiwan over the next four years to surpass those in Trump’s first term, with one of them saying
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the