People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) yesterday announced his widely anticipated presidential bid in a race that originally featured just two female candidates.
At a news conference packed with hundreds of his supporters, Soong said he decided to again vie for the presidency after being saddened by how the government has handled the contentious adjustments to high-school curriculum guidelines and the long-standing blue-versus-green political wrangling.
“Yesterday [Wednesday] marked the seventh day after the death of a young man named Dai Lin (林冠華), who sacrificed his life in a widespread student-led protest against backroom curriculum changes,” Soong said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
Soong said he could not comprehend how something that could have been openly discussed had gone in such an aggressive direction, urging the government to delay the introduction of the new guidelines by one year.
This issue should be handled by the next president, who should ensure that the curriculum adjustments are discussed in a transparent manner and conform with historical facts “written in the blood and sweat of the nation’s forebears,” Soong said.
Turning to the long-running feud between the pan-blue and pan-green camps, the 73-year-old said he was determined to offer solutions instead of political slogans.
“The key words for Taiwan’s future is not power struggle, not blue or green, not winning or losing. They are cooperation, sharing, mutual aid, feeling for others and working together,” Soong said.
The former Taiwan provincial governor made six campaign pledges. He vowed to facilitate communication among different political parties and all sectors of society, and to push for a revision of the Constitution.
He also promised to deliver an annual “state of the union” address before the legislature, establish a cross-party coalition government to put an end to one-party rule and talk to the people to keep himself in sync with issues close to the public’s heart.
On cross-strait issues, Soong pledged to maintain the “status quo” across the Taiwan Strait, which he said was the most agreed-upon consensus among the nation’s 23 million people.
“If elected, I will ensure public participation, transparency, open scrutiny and legislative supervision in the government’s creation of major cross-strait policies,” he said.
Stressing that people from both sides of the Taiwan Strait are all descendants of the legendary emperors Yan and Huang and belong to the big zhonghua minzu (Chinese ethnic group, 中華民族) family, Soong said cross-strait relations should be furthered and mutual trust across the Taiwan Strait be built based on the principles of equality, reciprocity and transparency.
Soong’s first presidential bid was in 2000, when he ran as an independent candidate after failing to obtain the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) nomination.
In 2004, Soong, as the PFP chairman, ran for vice president, alongside then-KMT chairman Lien Chan (連戰).
His most recent attempt to run for the nation’s top office was in 2012, when he competed against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) of the KMT, who was running for re-election, and the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
All of his previous bids were unsuccessful.
Soong’s campaign could potentially hurt both the two major parties’ presidential candidates, Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) of the KMT and Tsai.
According to a telephone-based opinion poll released by the Cross-Strait Policy Association on July 7, if only Tsai and Hung ran for president, 50.4 percent of respondents said they would support Tsai, while 26.9 percent said they would back Hung.
However, should Soong join the Jan. 16 election, 21.4 percent of respondents said they would vote for the veteran politician, with Tsai’s support rate decreasing to 39.6 percent against Hung’s 19.4 percent.
Another survey conducted by the Chinese-language Apple Daily from July 30 to Sunday showed Tsai leading Hung by 8.57 percentage points if the race was a two-way contest.
However, when Soong was introduced in the poll, both Tsai’s and Hung’s support rates dropped from 43.73 percent and 35.16 percent to 35.67 percent and 29.68 percent respectively.
The survey showed that 24.69 percent of respondents would support Soong.
NO HUMAN ERROR: After the incident, the Coast Guard Administration said it would obtain uncrewed aerial vehicles and vessels to boost its detection capacity Authorities would improve border control to prevent unlawful entry into Taiwan’s waters and safeguard national security, the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said yesterday after a Chinese man reached the nation’s coast on an inflatable boat, saying he “defected to freedom.” The man was found on a rubber boat when he was about to set foot on Taiwan at the estuary of Houkeng River (後坑溪) near Taiping Borough (太平) in New Taipei City’s Linkou District (林口), authorities said. The Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) northern branch said it received a report at 6:30am yesterday morning from the New Taipei City Fire Department about a
IN BEIJING’S FAVOR: A China Coast Guard spokesperson said that the Chinese maritime police would continue to carry out law enforcement activities in waters it claims The Philippines withdrew its coast guard vessel from a South China Sea shoal that has recently been at the center of tensions with Beijing. BRP Teresa Magbanua “was compelled to return to port” from Sabina Shoal (Xianbin Shoal, 仙濱暗沙) due to bad weather, depleted supplies and the need to evacuate personnel requiring medical care, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) spokesman Jay Tarriela said yesterday in a post on X. The Philippine vessel “will be in tiptop shape to resume her mission” after it has been resupplied and repaired, Philippine Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin, who heads the nation’s maritime council, said
CHINA POLICY: At the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China, the two sides issued strong support for Taiwan and condemned China’s actions in the South China Sea The US and EU issued a joint statement on Wednesday supporting Taiwan’s international participation, notably omitting the “one China” policy in a departure from previous similar statements, following high-level talks on China and the Indo-Pacific region. The statement also urged China to show restraint in the Taiwan Strait. US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and European External Action Service Secretary-General Stefano Sannino cochaired the seventh US-EU Dialogue on China and the sixth US-EU Indo-Pacific Consultations from Monday to Tuesday. Since the Indo-Pacific consultations were launched in 2021, references to the “one China” policy have appeared in every statement apart from the
More than 500 people on Saturday marched in New York in support of Taiwan’s entry to the UN, significantly more people than previous years. The march, coinciding with the ongoing 79th session of the UN General Assembly, comes close on the heels of growing international discourse regarding the meaning of UN Resolution 2758. Resolution 2758, adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1971, recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the “only lawful representative of China.” It resulted in the Republic of China (ROC) losing its seat at the UN to the PRC. Taiwan has since been excluded from