After the setback of a disappointing performance in the legislative elections, the Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) is reorganizing and working on internal reforms.
According to TSU sources, TSU Chairman Huang Chu-wen (
The new line-up of senior officials will be announced on Monday after a meeting of the TSU central executive committee, TSU Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (
"We will make public the new officials' names and elect new executive committee members next Monday. Hopefully it will increase the prospects of the TSU," Lin said.
Lin, who announced he would also step down to shoulder responsibility for the election failure, yesterday confirmed reports that Huang would quit and a new chairman installed on Feb. 1.
However, Lin declined to confirm if he and Huang met with former president Lee Teng-hui (
Favored candidates for TSU chairman are Taiwan Advocates vice president Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝), former National Security Council senior advisor and former TSU secretary-general Su Chin-chiang (蘇進強), national policy advisor to the president Chen Yung-hsing (陳永興) and Chen Po-chih (陳博志), chairman of Taiwan Thinktank. All declined to comment on the matter.
A number of unsuccessful TSU candidates who nonetheless garnered a strong vote are expected to serve as senior officials.
According to Lin, TSU Chiayi City legislative candidate Ling Tzu-chu (
Unsuccessful Taipei City candidate Chen Chien-ming (陳建銘) and Tainan County candidate Chien Lin Hui-chien (錢林慧君) will serve as, respectively, director of the legislative caucus office and director of the department for women's development.
Rookie TSU candidate Chiu Teh-hung (
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”