A national policy adviser to President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) said on Friday that a Su-Tsai ticket, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and Vice Premier Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), to represent the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the 2008 presidential election is already taking shape.
Chin Heng-wei (金恆煒), the editor-in-chief of Contemporary Monthly Magazine, made the remarks while giving a briefing on Taiwan's political situation to Taiwanese expatriates in the greater Washington area after attending the annual Congressional National Prayer Breakfast the previous day.
Chin said that both Chen's New Year and Lunar New Year speech were aimed at paving the way for the Su-Tsai ticket to win the election. Both messages have raised widespread concern in the US.
Chin said that as far as he knows, the president did not make the remarks "on a whim," but instead contemplated them for quite some time. Examination Yuan President Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文) called on the president before his Lunar New Year speech, conveying to the president a resolution to scrap the National Unification Council and unification guidelines passed in a meeting of the World Taiwanese Congress, an organization formed by pro-Taiwan independence groups in the US, in December 2000.
Chin said that the president's two speeches "were a response to his core supporters."
He said that the DPP suffered a major setback in last December's elections because it lost many of its "core supporters" by trying to court middle-of-the-road voters.
"The core supporters ended up not voting because they thought Chen was not being loyal to them and they wanted to teach the party a lesson," Chin claimed.
The lesson the DPP learned from its drubbing in the elections is that it has to solidify support among its core supporters and then expand to the middle-of-the-road voters. If it continues to ignore its core supporters while tilting toward the middle-of-the-road voters, it risks losing both sets, Chin said.
He added that in Taiwan, where the pan-green camp and the opposition pan-blue camp are so clearly divided, the middle-of-the-road voters could be the most apathetic toward politics and therefore the least likely to cast their votes.
Such voters tend to vote for candidates that have the better chance of winning, and they usually vote for specific candidates rather than particular parties.
"Even if you have done your best to woo them, the effect could be minimal," Chin continued.
With two years remaining in Chen's second and final term, Chin said that Chen's paramount task will be to ensure that the DPP continues to rule the nation, which he called "an extremely tough challenge" for the president.
For this reason, when Chen was thinking about the possible candidates to head the new Cabinet, he had to choose whether the new premier would be an executive director to him or his successor in 2008, and he chose the latter, Chin claimed.
Chen's New Year message and Lunar New Year speech were in fact a response to core supporters, Chin said. "He wanted to ensure the core supporters would remain loyal before releasing power to give Su's Cabinet room to shine and use Su's political performance to expand the party's support base," Chin observed.
Taipei has once again made it to the top 100 in Oxford Economics’ Global Cities Index 2025 report, moving up five places from last year to 60. The annual index, which was published last month, evaluated 1,000 of the most populated metropolises based on five indices — economics, human capital, quality of life, environment and governance. New York maintained its top spot this year, placing first in the economics index thanks to the strength of its vibrant financial industry and economic stability. Taipei ranked 263rd in economics, 44th in human capital, 15th in quality of life, 284th for environment and 75th in governance,
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
Control Yuan Secretary-General Lee Chun-yi (李俊俋) tendered his resignation last night, admitting that he had misused a government vehicle, as reported by media. His resignation was immediately accepted by the Control Yuan. In a statement explaining why he had resigned, Lee apologized for using a Control Yuan vehicle to transport his dog to a pet grooming salon on May 20. The issue first came to light late last month, when TVBS News reported that Lee had instructed his driver to take the dog to the salon. The news channel broadcast photos that it said were taken by an unnamed whistle-blower, which purportedly showed the
Democratic Progressive Party caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu, front, grabs the pennant in a dragon boat race hosted by Qu Yuan Temple in the Shuanghsi River in Taipei’s Beitou District yesterday.