Little more than a month after taking the fall for the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) worst ever poll defeat, Su Tseng-chang's (蘇貞昌) appointment as the new premier is testament to the popularity of a man tipped to run for president in 2008.
Eloquent, vibrant and aggressive, the 59-year-old is a former human-rights lawyer and popular co-founder of the DPP.
Nicknamed "light bulb" because of his small stature and lack of hair, Su graduated from National Taiwan University and worked as a lawyer for 10 years.
Like President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) and outgoing premier Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), who resigned on Tuesday to take responsibility for the party's crushing defeat in last month's local elections, his move into politics was a reaction to a violent pro-democracy rally in 1979.
In the "Kaohsiung Incident," thousands took to the streets of Kaohsiung to demand greater political freedoms in the first public expression of dissent against the then Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government.
Hundreds of people, including 140 policemen, were injured in clashes between police and protesters and scores of opposition leaders, including Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), were rounded up and jailed.
Motivated by the injustices, Su began defending dissidents charged with treason before deciding to throw himself into politics. In 1981 he was elected to the now defunct Taiwan Provincial Council and re-elected four years later.
Su helped found the DPP in 1986 in defiance of a ban on new parties imposed by the KMT, which ended its half-century rule in Taiwan after the DPP won the presidency in 2000.
Su, a father of three, was elected as commissioner of Pingtung County in 1989, but failed to get re-elected in controversial polls four years later. He won a seat in the legislature in 1995 and became commissioner of Taipei County, the largest district in Taiwan, in 1997. He was re-elected in 2001.
Su was chosen to be Presidential Office's general-secretary in 2004 and was elected party chairman the following year. He resigned last month.
Su's popularity within the party has not wavered, as many felt he should not have taken the blame for the election defeat.
Seven of the 17 NT$10 million (US$311,604) winning receipts from the November-December uniform invoice lottery remain unclaimed as of today, the Ministry of Finance said, urging winners to redeem their prizes by May 5. The reminder comes ahead of the release of the winning numbers for the January-February lottery tomorrow. Among the unclaimed receipts was one for a NT$173 phone bill in Keelung, while others were for a NT$5,913 purchase at Costco in Taipei's Neihu District (內湖), a NT$49 purchase at a FamilyMart in New Taipei City's Tamsui District (淡水), and a NT$500 purchase at a tea shop in New Taipei City's
Taiwanese officials were shown the first of 66 F-16V fighter jets purchased by Taiwan from the United States, the Ministry of National Defense said yesterday, adding the aircraft has completed an initial flight test and is expected to be delivered later this year. A delegation led by Deputy Minister of National Defense Hsu Szu-chien (徐斯儉) visited Lockheed Martin’s F-16 C/D Block 70 (also known as F-16V) assembly line in South Carolina on March 16 to view the aircraft. The jet will undergo a final acceptance flight in the US before being delivered to Taiwan, the
Deliveries of delayed F-16V jets are expected to begin in September, Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) said today, after senior defense officials visited the US last week. The US in 2019 approved a US$8 billion sale of Lockheed Martin F-16 jets to Taiwan, a deal that would take the nation’s F-16 fleet to more than 200 jets, but the project has been hit by issues including software problems. Koo appeared today before a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee, which is discussing different versions of the special defense budget this week. The committee is questioning officials today,
TALENT SCOUTING: The university is investing substantial funds in its future to bring in the kind of researchers that would keep the college internationally competitive National Taiwan University (NTU) plans to invest NT$2 billion (US$62.6 million) to launch two programs aimed at attracting and retaining top research talent, university president Chen Wen-chang (陳文章) said yesterday. The funding would support the “Palm Grove Scholars Project,” which targets academics aged 40 to 55. Up to 20 scholars would be selected, each receiving as much as NT$10 million annually, Chen said. The initiative is designed to attract leading researchers to Taiwan and strengthen NTU’s global competitiveness by fostering a more research-friendly environment and expanding international collaboration, he said. NTU is also introducing a “Hong Hu” chair grant, which would provide Palm
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