The Green Party Taiwan called for public support yesterday for the three candidates whom it has nominated for the year-end Taipei City Council election.
The three candidates yesterday received a collective endorsement from other environment advocacy groups.
"The difference between candidates from the Green Party and those of other parties is that they are essentially doing the same thing -- whether or not they are elected," said Robin Winkler, chairman of Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association.
Winkler added that the candidates' participation will bring different perspectives and ideas to Taiwan's political scene.
Liao Pen-chuan (廖本全), representative from the Taiwan Academy of Ecology, said the so-called "third force" -- a term recently created by former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) -- should not refer to a recombination of politicians and power.
"Rather, it should refer to all those who recognize and show concern for the land and the people in Taiwan," Liao said, adding that more people need to rise up to jointly protect the environment.
Liao, who said that politicians nowadays are "all the same," added that the country needs a new kind of candidates.
Representing the Homemakers' Union and Foundation, chairman Chen Man-li (
While all three candidates represent the Green Party, each is concerned with different environmental issues.
Chang Hung-lin's (
Pan Han-shen (
Activist Linda Gail Arrigo, also a member of the Green Party's Central Executive Committee, said the party's candidates running for office this year possess backgrounds and qualifications that have been lacking in environmental protection groups.
"Supporting these candidates will give the Green Party an opportunity to supervise both the pan-blue and pan-green camps," Arrigo said.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s