Nearly 60 percent of Taipei citizens wouldn't mind having a female mayor, a recent survey showed.
According to the survey, conducted by the Decision Making Research Center, PFP legislator Lee Ching-an (李慶安), Council for Hakka Affairs Chairwoman Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) and independent legislator Sisy Chen (陳文茜) were the top choices among Taipei citizens to be a woman mayor.
DPP legislator Wang Hsueh-fung (
As Ma, of the KMT, has already expressed an interest in running for re-election, other parties have been searching for candidates strong enough to take him on.
Wang said she believed Yeh could gain enormous support from Taipei's citizens.
Wang and Lee Wen-ying (李文英), convener of a women's advocacy group, said they would start a petition soon to ask DPP party headquarters to nominate Yeh for the Taipei mayoral race.
Rather than persist in having a male candidate, Wang said, the DPP should take a different perspective and nominate a female candidate for the position.
Meanwhile, DPP legislator Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) yesterday said that the party would name its candidate for the mayoral election by June. Luo said the DPP was confident it would field a qualified candidate to run against Ma.
President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) already has a candidate in mind, Luo said, but the time has not yet come to make public the candidate's name.
Luo declined to comment on possible DPP candidates. Speculation has centered on Minister of Justice Chen Ding-nan (
Though he is not expected to run in this year's election, Luo, a close aid of President Chen and a former director of the DPP's Department of Culture and Information, has been tipped by many as a possible DPP Taipei mayoral candidate in the future.
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) today issued a "tsunami watch" alert after a magnitude 8.7 earthquake struck off the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia earlier in the morning. The quake struck off the east coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula at 7:25am (Taiwan time) at a depth of about 19km, the CWA said, citing figures from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. The CWA's Seismological Center said preliminary assessments indicate that a tsunami could reach Taiwan's coastal areas by 1:18pm today. The CWA urged residents along the coast to stay alert and take necessary precautions as waves as high as 1m could hit the southeastern
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)