New Party leaders yesterday strongly expressed their anger with the People First Party (PFP), alleging that the party was trying to take over the New Party to win more seats in the year-end elections.
After Feng Ting-kuo (馮定國), a New Party lawmaker from Taichung County, announced he was joining the PFP on Thursday, high-ranking PFP officials revealed yesterday that the party's chairman, James Soong (宋楚瑜), had already suggested inviting a few New Party heavyweights to represent his party in the legislative election.
"Soong expects to nominate the New Party's former convener, Wang Chien-shien (
Hsieh, however, said in answer to reporters' questions yesterday that she believed all three politicians would decline Soong's invitation.
"Wang and Kao are both founding members of the New Party, and Chou has already registered to receive our party's nomination," Hsieh said, "and their loyalty will prove that the party has the ability to continue its political life."
Other New Party leaders yesterday severely attacked Feng for leaving and warned the PFP not to continue trying to poach the New Party's elite into its ranks.
"Feng wants to sell the party out for his own personal interests. We appeal to the PFP not to nominate such a person and we hope that Feng will lose the election," New Party Taipei City councilor Lee Ching-yuan (李慶元) said in a statement, read on behalf of all New Party councilors.
Wang also issued a news release last night saying that Soong's remarks not only severely hurt the New Party but also insulted him.
"A positive contest between all political parties is good for Taiwan's democracy," Wang said in the news release, "and therefore any intention to cause the New Party to disappear [by merging it with the PFP] is immoral."
"I am not sure what James Soong meant by his invitation to New Party leaders," Wang said. "Does he want to eliminate the New Party? I hope Soong can exercise more justice than trickery."
Wang wrote a private letter to Feng in which he said that Feng's behavior was worse than that of a dog.
The PFP, however, denied that its party chairman had made any deal with Hsieh or even expressed such an intent in private.
"We welcome anybody who wants to join us. But the nomination procedure is fair and does not favor people who defect from other political parties," said PFP spokesman Liao Tsang-sung (
The New Party's influence has gradually declined since its poor showing in the 1998 legislative election. Analysts say that with only nine seats in the legislature, the party faces the prospect of a PFP merger or takeover.
Hsieh vowed the party would make a good showing in the election.
‘ABUSE OF POWER’: Lee Chun-yi allegedly used a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon and take his wife to restaurants, media reports said Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) resigned on Sunday night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by the media. Control Yuan Vice President Lee Hung-chun (李鴻鈞) yesterday apologized to the public over the issue. The watchdog body would follow up on similar accusations made by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and would investigate the alleged misuse of government vehicles by three other Control Yuan members: Su Li-chiung (蘇麗瓊), Lin Yu-jung (林郁容) and Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋), Lee Hung-chun said. Lee Chun-yi in a statement apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a
Taiwan yesterday denied Chinese allegations that its military was behind a cyberattack on a technology company in Guangzhou, after city authorities issued warrants for 20 suspects. The Guangzhou Municipal Public Security Bureau earlier yesterday issued warrants for 20 people it identified as members of the Information, Communications and Electronic Force Command (ICEFCOM). The bureau alleged they were behind a May 20 cyberattack targeting the backend system of a self-service facility at the company. “ICEFCOM, under Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive Party, directed the illegal attack,” the warrant says. The bureau placed a bounty of 10,000 yuan (US$1,392) on each of the 20 people named in
The High Court yesterday found a New Taipei City woman guilty of charges related to helping Beijing secure surrender agreements from military service members. Lee Huei-hsin (李慧馨) was sentenced to six years and eight months in prison for breaching the National Security Act (國家安全法), making illegal compacts with government employees and bribery, the court said. The verdict is final. Lee, the manager of a temple in the city’s Lujhou District (蘆洲), was accused of arranging for eight service members to make surrender pledges to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army in exchange for money, the court said. The pledges, which required them to provide identification
INDO-PACIFIC REGION: Royal Navy ships exercise the right of freedom of navigation, including in the Taiwan Strait and South China Sea, the UK’s Tony Radakin told a summit Freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region is as important as it is in the English Channel, British Chief of the Defence Staff Admiral Tony Radakin said at a summit in Singapore on Saturday. The remark came as the British Royal Navy’s flagship aircraft carrier, the HMS Prince of Wales, is on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region as head of an international carrier strike group. “Upholding the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and with it, the principles of the freedom of navigation, in this part of the world matters to us just as it matters in the
RSS