President Chen Shui-bian's (陳水扁) recent decision to delegate powers to Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) and other ranking party officials has changed the relationship between the governing party's heavyweights.
Facing mounting pressure due to a spate of corruption scandals involving his relatives and inner circle, Chen announced on May 31 that he would relinquish his party responsibilities and focus solely on doing his job as president, leaving it to ranking Cabinet and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) members to make their own calls on other matters.
Analysts calculated that the move would shift relations between the DPP's bigwigs: Su, DPP Chairman Yu Shyi-kun, former premier Frank Hsieh (
As head of the government, Su apparently benefits the most from Chen's decision. Previously, Su was thought to support a more moderate approach than Chen, especially on cross-strait policies -- though Su has denied any such rift.
Since Chen transferred powers to Su, Su has shown a tremendous amount of respect to the president because, analysts said, Su realized it was in his interest to toe Chen's line and maintain friendly relations with his supervisor.
Yu has recognized that the administration must perform well in order for him to be a viable 2008 candidate.
"Yu stands a better chance of running in the 2008 presidential election only if the administration performs well," said Ku Chung-hwa (
Although the prospect of a DPP victory in the year-end Taipei and Kaohsiung mayoral elections and next year's legislative elections seems dim, Ku said that he does not think that Yu will resign if the party loses the elections.
It has been the DPP's tradition that if the party is defeated in an election, the party chairman steps down to take political responsibility.
According to Ku, Hsieh, who was originally reluctant to run in the Taipei mayoral race, is now expected to join that contest because he has finally realized that he would suffer most politically from Chen's power transfer if he fails to secure a role in the political arena, and that Su benefits most from Chen's move.
"It is clear that Su, Yu and Hsieh have formed a political alliance following Chen's announcement to delegate powers," Ku said. "Their common strategy is to respect Bian [Chen's nickname] and ignore Lu."
Despite reports that former president Lee Teng-hui (
"I suspect that was the speculation of some Taiwan Solidarity Union members or merely a test balloon or foul-up," he said. "I don't think there is any room for the so-called `third political force' unless Chen is found to be involved in the scandal."
Shih Cheng-feng (
Shih attributed Hsieh's change of heart to run in the Taipei mayoral race to People First Party Chairman James Soong's (
The rule stipulates that party candidates who fail in an election cannot be nominated again for another election for another two years. By that rule, Hsieh would not be able to run for the presidency in 2008 as the DPP's candidate if he lost the Taipei mayoral election.
While Su and Yu have different preferences for the party's Kaohsiung mayoral candidate, Shih said that Hsieh is their common enemy.
"That is why Su and Yu are gearing up to persuade Hsieh to run in Taipei because the last thing they want to see is Hsieh, a former Kaohsiung mayor, stay in the south and consolidate his political power there," Shih said.
In addition to joining forces with Yu against Hsieh, Shih said that Su would continue to stand behind Chen in a bid to keep Lu out of play.
The political maneuvering among the DPP's four heavyweights is just beginning, he said.
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