On his first day in office, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Yu Shyi-kun yesterday urged DPP party members to make integrity the party's top priority.
Yu made the request at a meeting with department directors yesterday.
"The DPP's headquarters is not a place for the chairperson to develop into a political star and I didn't take up the chairpersonship in order to run for another position," Yu said. "What we do is for Taiwan and the party's sustainable development."
Yu asked party workers to have a sense of responsibility, value teamwork and work efficiently. He also called on party members not to join factions but to remain impartial.
"Integrity will be the priority and it is urgent for us to maintain this at all costs," Yu said.
Yu pointed out that although he had heard the rumors that some members of the central headquarters had profited from the chairmanship election, he didn't believe that this was the case.
"However, if these allegations are found to be true, we will bring those responsible to justice," Yu said. "Our integrity committee will investigate the case."
Yu urged local party chapters to be on the lookout for instances of vote-buying, which may occur as early as the Lunar New Year holidays, as the county and city council speakership elections will take place in March.
Meanwhile, Yu's letter, entitled "Rekindling the flame of Taiwan's DPP" was run on the opinion page of the Asian Wall Street Journal yesterday. In it, Yu said that although the DPP faced setbacks in last month's elections, he is confident of leading the governing party in carrying out reforms and regaining the faith of the Taiwanese public.
"This is a crucial time for both the DPP and Taiwan's future. The DPP's losses in December's elections are a test of whether the party will be able to reflect and reform itself, and march forward once again," Yu said in the letter. "We have confidence and have faith that with the election of a new chairman and reshuffling of our government Cabinet, reform and passion for a Taiwanese identity will be here to stay."
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods