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stages of the by-election for the seat held by former Caotun mayor Chou Hsin-li (周信利) of the KMT, whose position was rescinded in June last year after Chou was found guilty of bribing voters in 2009.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.”
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
NOVEL METHODS: The PLA has adopted new approaches and recently conducted three combat readiness drills at night which included aircraft and ships, an official said Taiwan is monitoring China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) exercises for changes in their size or pattern as the nation prepares for president-elect William Lai’s (賴清德) inauguration on May 20, National Security Bureau (NSB) Director-General Tsai Ming-yen (蔡明彥) said yesterday. Tsai made the comment at a meeting of the Legislative Yuan’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, in response to Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Wang Ting-yu’s (王定宇) questions. China continues to employ a carrot-and-stick approach, in which it applies pressure with “gray zone” tactics, while attempting to entice Taiwanese with perks, Tsai said. These actions aim to help Beijing look like it has
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
UNWAVERING: Paraguay remains steadfast in its support of Taiwan, but is facing growing pressure at home and abroad to switch recognition to Beijing, Pena said Paraguayan President Santiago Pena has pledged to continue enhancing cooperation with Taiwan, as he and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida expressed opposition to any unilateral change to the “status quo” in the Taiwan Strait using force, Japanese media reported on Saturday. Kishida yesterday completed a trip to France, Brazil and Paraguay, his first visit to South America since taking office in 2021. After the Japanese leader and Pena spoke for more than an hour on Friday, exchanging views on the situation in East Asia in the face of China’s increasing military pressure on Taiwan, they affirmed that “unilateral attempts to change the