The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) yesterday amended its charter to exempt certain high-ranking government officials from serving in party positions, while amending the party’s Regulations on Clean Politics to penalize party members who fail to avoid conflicts of interest.
“The public might not know why we are holding an irregula national congress to revise our party charter,” president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said.
“According to the DPP’s original charter, certain government officials are also required to serve as the party’s Central Standing Committee [CSC] members,” she said. “Such a rule was meaningful in the past, but we must reform it under the current situation.”
Photo: CNA
Tsai said that the DPP would look for talented people across party lines who share similar ideologies with the DPP to serve in the new government.
For instance, vice president-elect Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) and premier-designate Lin Chuan (林全) are not DPP members, Tsai said.
The revisions also show the DPP’s determination to promote neutrality of government officials, Tsai said.
Photo: CNA
“Exempting officials from having to also serve as the party’s CSC members would turn the relationship between officials and the DPP into a partnership, instead of a supervisor-to-subordinate relationship,” Tsai said. “They report to the people of Taiwan, not to the CSC, and that is why today’s [yesterday’s] party charter revisions are important.”
The original charter stipulates that party members serving as vice president, Presidential Office secretary-general and deputy secretary-general, Cabinet ministers and deputy ministers, as well as several other central government positions, must be party delegates, while DPP members serving as vice-president, premier and Presidential Office secretary-general are mandatorily CSC members under a DPP administration.
The article giving the president the option of doubling as the DPP chairperson remained unchanged.
The party charter was also amended to allow local government heads affiliated with the DPP, as well as legislative caucus officials, to serve as CSC or Central Executive Committee members, since they are elected by popular vote and represent their constituencies.
Meanwhile, the congress also amended the Regulations on Clean Politics to authorize the party’s Clean Politics Committee to penalize party members who fail to avoid conflicts of interest.
As the regulation was amended after the controversial purchase and sales of OBI Pharma Co (台灣浩鼎) shares owned by Academia Sinica president Wong Chi-huey’s (翁啟惠) daughter, the clause has been called “the Wong Chi-huey clause.”
However, Taoyuan Mayor Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦) denied that the amendment had anything to do with Wong, as he is not a DPP member.
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