The New Power Party (NPP) staged a mass rally last night, spotlighting legislative candidates’ families as the electoral campaign entered its final week.
More than 1,000 mostly young people gathered along Jinan Road next to the Legislative Yuan Building in Taipei, with most members squatting along the pavement in a manner reminiscent of the 2014 Sunflower movement, which saw massive crowds surround the building in support of student activists who occupied the legislature’s main chamber to protest the government’s handling of a trade in services agreement with China.
The NPP, whose membership and leadership include numerous social activists, has sought to portray itself as the standard bearer for the movement in the upcoming legislative elections.
A skit on the “NPP’s story” made liberal use of the movement’s symbols, with youth another key theme of the rally’s performances, which included “Young Dream” and “Dancing Youth.”
Posts with the names of the party’s legislator-at-large candidates on them lined the road, while several large statues of progressively younger adults and children occupied the middle.
The party’s logo reflected off the stomach of a large statue of a pregnant woman that occupied the main stage at the street’s end. Candidates were introduced between performances.
The mother of Taichung district candidate Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) said she initially opposed Hung’s candidacy because of concern for her daughter’s well-being, only agreeing after realizing her candidacy was necessary to address systemic problems similar to those that led the death of her brother, army corporal Hung Chung-chiu (洪仲丘).
Hung rose to prominence during demonstrations for reform in the military justice system, which followed her brother’s death from abuse during military service.
Hsinchu City legislative district candidate Chiu Hsien-chih’s (邱顯智) wife, Huang Wan-ting (黃琬婷), talked about her support for Chiu in taking on numerous pro bono cases for social activists, including prominent Sunflower students, while Doris Yeh (葉湘怡), the wife of legislative candidate Freddy Lim (林昶佐) in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), said Lim’s candidacy was a natural extension of the political ideas contained in the music created by their metal band, Chthonic.
Candidates’ speeches focused on the need for reform and social justice, while taking shots at the governing Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT).
“KMT Legislator Lin Yu-fang (林郁方) has the nerve to say that any man who has hair longer than a woman is mentally abnormal,” said Lim, who sports a long pony tail. “We have to work hard because we don’t just want progressive forces to gain a majority, we want to marginalize an already fossilized KMT.”
Nobel laureate Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲) and director Wu Nien-Jen (吳念真) were also slated to address the crowd at the rally.
Meanwhile, the competing “third force” Green Party-Social Democratic Party Alliance is scheduled to host its own campaign rally at the intersection of Taipei’s Dunhua and Anhe roads today.
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