The two biggest losers in yesterday's election made appeals and offered excuses as the dust settled and Chen Shui-bian
Independent candidate Hsu Hsin-liang
Hsu held a post-election press conference to congratulate Chen and to call on the public to reunite after a divisive election campaign. The former chairman of the DPP, Hsu left the party to make his ill-fated bid for the presidency.
FILE PHOTO
Hsu said he sincerely accepted the voters' choice and appealed to Chen to ease cross-strait tensions and promote the public's confidence in Taiwan's economy.
Hsu did not say much about his future nor did he directly answer speculation that he might try to found a new party.
"I never felt frustrated and will keep going," he said.
FILE PHOTO
New Party vice-presidential candidate Elmer Feng (馮滬祥) also held a post-election press conference, in the absence of the party's presidential candidate Li Ao (李敖), to blame his party's loss on a rumor, saying President Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) wanted to "Dump Lien to save Chen" (棄連保陳).
The New Party made an abysmal showing, eking out just 0.1 percent of the total, or 16,782 votes.
The convener of the New Party caucus, Hao Lung-bin (郝龍斌), said Chen's victory was mainly based on anti-China sentiment,along with Academic Sinica president Lee Yuan-tseh's (李遠哲) powerful support for Chen and the divisions within the KMT.
Hao said threatening statements from Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji (朱鎔基) triggered Taiwanese voters' negative emotions and pushed them towards Chen. However, Hao emphasized that "the [Taiwanese] anti-China complex doesn't mean that Taiwanese espouse independence."
Responding to general doubt about the New Party's future, Hao said the poor showing was not equal to the party's demise.
"Li and Feng's endeavors in the election campaign have reached the goal of promoting the New Party's propaganda," Hao said.
Li didn't even show up at the New Party's post-election press conference, saying he was not interested in the result and was happy that the election had finally come to an end. Although Li refused to join the party as a member, he stood as its candidate.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
NO CONFIDENCE MOTION? The premier said that being toppled by the legislature for defending the Constitution would be a democratic badge of honor for him Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday announced that the Cabinet would not countersign the amendments to the local revenue-sharing law passed by the Legislative Yuan last month. Cho said the decision not to countersign the amendments to the Act Governing the Allocation of Government Revenues and Expenditures (財政收支劃分法) was made in accordance with the Constitution. “The decision aims to safeguard our Constitution,” he said. The Constitution stipulates the president shall, in accordance with law, promulgate laws and issue mandates with the countersignature of the head of the Executive Yuan, or with the countersignatures of both the head of the Executive Yuan and ministers or
CABINET APPROVAL: People seeking assisted reproduction must be assessed to determine whether they would be adequate parents, the planned changes say Proposed amendments to the Assisted Reproduction Act (人工生殖法) advanced yesterday by the Executive Yuan would grant married lesbian couples and single women access to legal assisted reproductive services. The proposed revisions are “based on the fundamental principle of respecting women’s reproductive autonomy,” Cabinet spokesperson Michelle Lee (李慧芝) quoted Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun (鄭麗君), who presided over a Cabinet meeting earlier yesterday, as saying at the briefing. The draft amendment would be submitted to the legislature for review. The Ministry of Health and Welfare, which proposed the amendments, said that experts on children’s rights, gender equality, law and medicine attended cross-disciplinary meetings, adding that
RSS