While the Democratic Progressive Party’s narrow win in Saturday’s legislative by-election in Caotun Township (草屯), Nantou County, is not expected to have a substantive impact on the political map, the party is nevertheless hailing the result as a major victory.
Voters in the farming community — Premier Wu Den-yih’s (吳敦義) hometown — gave DPP candidate Hung Kuo-hao (洪國浩) a win with 19 more votes, ending a series of Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) victories in the predominantly pan-blue region.
Hung’s victory was a blow to Wu and other KMT figures, who had made a last-ditch effort in the past few weeks to drum up support for candidate Chien Ching-hsien (簡景賢).
Reports said the KMT had defined the vote as a “hometown protection battle” for Wu.
The KMT candidate was a favorite in the early stages of the by-election for the seat held by former Caotun mayor Chou Hsin-li (周信利) of the KMT, whose position was rescinded in June last year after Chou was found guilty of bribing voters in 2009. Both the Nantou County commissioner and the county’s two legislators also belong to the KMT.
Commenting on the election, DPP spokesperson Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) said the plan to tie the local elections to the premier appeared to have backfired and exacerbated the ramifications of the loss on the Cabinet and President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration.
“Clearly, voters did not side with the KMT’s slogans and the final tallies highlight the public’s disappointment with Ma’s performance,” he said.
“There were also a lot of other reasons behind the KMT loss — and defining it as Wu’s battle was one of them,” Cheng said.
A factor behind the sudden shift in votes, with the amount garnered by the KMT almost falling by half compared with 2009, was DPP politicians’ show of unity during the elections, Cheng said.
Senior party members, including DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and former premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), defined Caotun as a priority area and made frequent trips to drum up support.
Cheng said these moves “definitely helped increase the DPP’s visibility,” adding that this suggested DPP politicians still had a certain amount of sway in rural areas — which could be crucial for any hopes of a DPP comeback in the legislative elections later this year or the presidential election next year.
While media reports immediately defined the result as a “precursor” to 2012, Cheng said it was “too early to tell.”
The by-election, though demonstrating a shift from pan-blue to pan-green, cannot be assumed to reflect the mood nationwide, he said.
“We do not think it should be raised to the level of a [national election],” he said. “What [Saturday’s poll] will do, however, is give us a boost as we steadily head into the legislative elections.”
Despite the slim margin, Chien’s campaign office said he would not ask for a recount. Chien’s campaign director Lee Ming-ken (李銘根) said Chien had “congratulated Hung on his election.”
Nvidia Corp yesterday unveiled its new high-speed interconnect technology, NVLink Fusion, with Taiwanese application-specific IC (ASIC) designers Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯) and MediaTek Inc (聯發科) among the first to adopt the technology to help build semi-custom artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for hyperscalers. Nvidia has opened its technology to outside users, as hyperscalers and cloud service providers are building their own cost-effective AI chips, or accelerators, used in AI servers by leveraging ASIC firms’ designing capabilities to reduce their dependence on Nvidia. Previously, NVLink technology was only available for Nvidia’s own AI platform. “NVLink Fusion opens Nvidia’s AI platform and rich ecosystem for
WARNING: From Jan. 1 last year to the end of last month, 89 Taiwanese have gone missing or been detained in China, the MAC said, urging people to carefully consider travel to China Lax enforcement had made virtually moot regulations banning civil servants from making unauthorized visits to China, the Control Yuan said yesterday. Several agencies allowed personnel to travel to China after they submitted explanations for the trip written using artificial intelligence or provided no reason at all, the Control Yuan said in a statement, following an investigation headed by Control Yuan member Lin Wen-cheng (林文程). The probe identified 318 civil servants who traveled to China without permission in the past 10 years, but the true number could be close to 1,000, the Control Yuan said. The public employees investigated were not engaged in national
CAUSE AND EFFECT: China’s policies prompted the US to increase its presence in the Indo-Pacific, and Beijing should consider if this outcome is in its best interests, Lai said China has been escalating its military and political pressure on Taiwan for many years, but should reflect on this strategy and think about what is really in its best interest, President William Lai (賴清德) said. Lai made the remark in a YouTube interview with Mindi World News that was broadcast on Saturday, ahead of the first anniversary of his presidential inauguration tomorrow. The US has clearly stated that China is its biggest challenge and threat, with US President Donald Trump and US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth repeatedly saying that the US should increase its forces in the Indo-Pacific region
ALL TOGETHER: Only by including Taiwan can the WHA fully exemplify its commitment to ‘One World for Health,’ the representative offices of eight nations in Taiwan said The representative offices in Taiwan of eight nations yesterday issued a joint statement reiterating their support for Taiwan’s meaningful engagement with the WHO and for Taipei’s participation as an observer at the World Health Assembly (WHA). The joint statement came as Taiwan has not received an invitation to this year’s WHA, which started yesterday and runs until Tuesday next week. This year’s meeting of the decisionmaking body of the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland, would be the ninth consecutive year Taiwan has been excluded. The eight offices, which reaffirmed their support for Taiwan, are the British Office Taipei, the Australian Office Taipei, the