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.
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
NO CHANGE: The TRA makes clear that the US does not consider the status of Taiwan to have been determined by WWII-era documents, a former AIT deputy director said The American Institute in Taiwan’s (AIT) comments that World War-II era documents do not determine Taiwan’s political status accurately conveyed the US’ stance, the US Department of State said. An AIT spokesperson on Saturday said that a Chinese official mischaracterized World War II-era documents as stating that Taiwan was ceded to the China. The remarks from the US’ de facto embassy in Taiwan drew criticism from the Ma Ying-jeou Foundation, whose director said the comments put Taiwan in danger. The Chinese-language United Daily News yesterday reported that a US State Department spokesperson confirmed the AIT’s position. They added that the US would continue to
The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency as well as long-term residency in Taiwan has decreased, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday, adding that the reduction of Chinese spouses staying or living in Taiwan is only one facet reflecting the general decrease in the number of people willing to get married in Taiwan. The number of Chinese spouses applying for dependent residency last year was 7,123, down by 2,931, or 29.15 percent, from the previous year. The same census showed that the number of Chinese spouses applying for long-term residency and receiving approval last year stood at 2,973, down 1,520,
EASING ANXIETY: The new guide includes a section encouraging people to discuss the threat of war with their children and teach them how to recognize disinformation The Ministry of National Defense’s All-Out Defense Mobilization Agency yesterday released its updated civil defense handbook, which defines the types of potential military aggression by an “enemy state” and self-protection tips in such scenarios. The agency has released three editions of the handbook since 2022, covering information from the preparation of go-bags to survival tips during natural disasters and war. Compared with the previous edition, released in 2023, the latest version has a clearer focus on wartime scenarios. It includes a section outlining six types of potential military threats Taiwan could face, including destruction of critical infrastructure and most undersea cables, resulting in
RSS