Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) officials voiced their opposition yesterday to the possible selection of DPP lawmaker Shen Fu-hsiung (沈富雄) as deputy speaker of the legislature.
Party lawmakers and officials said that Shen has been hostile toward the TSU and former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), the party's spiritual leader, since the TSU was founded in August last year.
Critic of Lee
"Shen has been very critical of Lee Teng-hui, calling him formidable and cruel." He always looks down on the TSU," said Huang Chin-lang (
At a meeting yesterday, TSU legislator-elect Chen Chien-ming (
"Initially he was opposed to the founding of the TSU. After the party was established he said the TSU would steal votes from the DPP and suggested that the DPP should not cooperate with the TSU. He once even said the TSU will win no more than three seats in the [legislative] elections," Chen said.
The director of the party's department of culture and information, Hsiao Kwan-yu (
Huang called on his party members not to support Shen, saying, "the TSU would support anyone nominated by the DPP other than Shen."
The director of the pro-Taiwan party accused Shen of not being strong enough in his support of Taiwan. Huang said he hoped the DPP would pick someone who agrees with the TSU's localization principle.
In contrast to the stern reaction from Huang and Chen, the party's deputy secretary-general, Lin Jih-chia (林志嘉), appeared relatively unperturbed, declining to comment directly on the DPP lawmaker under attack.
TSU complaints
"The party has not yet decided who to support and who not to support, but it is true that some party members have had complaints about Shen," Lin said.
"The party will make a final decision after consulting former president Lee; the 13 TSU lawmakers will support the same ticket."
Lin added that the party will only support the incumbent legislative speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), the KMT vice chairman, in his bid for re-election under the condition that his deputy is not a PFP member.
Lin said that if the KMT plans to cooperate with the PFP, the TSU will not rule out the possibility of nominating its own candidate to compete against theirs.
The election for the leaders of the Legislative Yuan will be held on Feb. 1. Shen appears to be the most likely candidate to be chosen as deputy speaker.
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
RSS