The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) will take a flexible approach to China and will re-open its department of China affairs, incoming party chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) has announced, following his landslide win in Sunday’s leadership vote.
Su, who garnered 50.47 percent of the total votes in the five-man race, will assume the party’s leadership from interim chairperson Chen Chu (陳菊) in a ceremony tomorrow.
The seasoned politician has numerous tasks ahead of him, including re-establishing party unity after the election, party reform, formulating new policies on China and the US and winning the 2014 seven-in-one municipal elections.
Photo: CNA
Party unity appears to be the top priority on Su’s agenda, with the 64-year-old saying he would hold talks with leaders of various party factions and those who hold grudges against him.
Su will soon have to appoint officials for various positions at DPP national headquarters and questions remain as to whether he will be “generous enough” to share his power with other factions.
The DPP will elect 30 members of the Central Executive Committee and 10 members of the Central Standing Committee — the DPP’s top decisionmaking body — in July, when the factions are expected once again to jockey for power.
Many analysts agree it will be critical for Su that he run the party smoothly, rebuild unity and regain party members’ trust for the DPP to have a shot at the 2016 presidential election, which some believe is Su’s next goal.
Su wasted no time extending olive branches, saying on Sunday night that he would not rule out meeting President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) if circumstances allowed it.
He also threw out the first pitch to Beijing, reiterating in his post-election press conference on Sunday night that he would re-establish the DPP’s Department of China Affairs and establish a Chinese affairs committee that includes academics and experts as members.
The DPP should engage Beijing with a flexible attitude and approaches, he said.
The veteran politician also said he would not rule out a visit to China “as long as the timing is right and no preconditions are set by Beijing.”
Several DPP legislators welcomed the idea, with Tsai Huang-liang (蔡煌瑯) saying that more exchanges would help the party engage China with confidence and that the “China issue” would not be the party’s Achilles’ heel again in 2016.
Chang Kuo-cheng (張國城), a researcher at Taiwan Thinktank, urged the party to conduct a large-scale survey to better understand the public’s attitude toward China and its deep impact on various levels of Taiwanese society and the electorate’s voting behaviors.
“It would be meaningless to say that ‘we want to better understand China,’” he said.
It may be possible that Su will be mentioned during the next two years in the same breath as former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), who was lauded for her leadership, which helped the party rebound from its nadir in 2008, when it suffered a humiliating defeat to Ma in the presidential election.
With Tsai and Su both interested in running for the presidency four years from now, the interactions, comparisons and competition between the two DPP heavyweights are expected to be a hot issue during Su’s tenure.
CHAOS: Iranians took to the streets playing celebratory music after reports of Khamenei’s death on Saturday, while mourners also gathered in Tehran yesterday Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in a major attack on Iran launched by Israel and the US, throwing the future of the Islamic republic into doubt and raising the risk of regional instability. Iranian state television and the state-run IRNA news agency announced the 86-year-old’s death early yesterday. US President Donald Trump said it gave Iranians their “greatest chance” to “take back” their country. The announcements came after a joint US and Israeli aerial bombardment that targeted Iranian military and governmental sites. Trump said the “heavy and pinpoint bombing” would continue through the week or as long
TRUST: The KMT said it respected the US’ timing and considerations, and hoped it would continue to honor its commitments to helping Taiwan bolster its defenses and deterrence US President Donald Trump is delaying a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Taiwan to ensure his visit to Beijing is successful, a New York Times report said. The weapons sales package has stalled in the US Department of State, the report said, citing US officials it did not identify. The White House has told agencies not to push forward ahead of Trump’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), it said. The two last month held a phone call to discuss trade and geopolitical flashpoints ahead of the summit. Xi raised the Taiwan issue and urged the US to handle arms sales to
BIG SPENDERS: Foreign investors bought the most Taiwan equities since 2005, signaling confidence that an AI boom would continue to benefit chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) market capitalization swelled to US$2 trillion for the first time following a 4.25 percent rally in its American depositary receipts (ADR) overnight, putting the world’s biggest contract chipmaker sixth on the list of the world’s biggest companies by market capitalization, just behind Amazon.com Inc. The site CompaniesMarketcap.com ranked TSMC ahead of Saudi Aramco and Meta Platforms Inc. The Taiwanese company’s ADRs on Tuesday surged to US$385.75 on the New York Stock Exchange, as strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications led to chip supply constraints and boost revenue growth to record-breaking levels. Each TSMC ADR represents
State-run CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) yesterday said that it had confirmed on Saturday night with its liquefied natural gas (LNG) and crude oil suppliers that shipments are proceeding as scheduled and that domestic supplies remain unaffected. The CPC yesterday announced the gasoline and diesel prices will rise by NT$0.2 and NT$0.4 per liter, respectively, starting Monday, citing Middle East tensions and blizzards in the eastern United States. CPC also iterated it has been reducing the proportion of crude oil imports from the Middle East and diversifying its supply sources in the past few years in response to geopolitical risks, expanding
RSS