Outgoing Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) was considered to be the frontrunner in the ruling party's primary for next year's presidential election when he announced his bid three months ago.
But following an acrimonious primary, Su conceded defeat after his main opponent, former premier Frank Hsieh (
Eloquent, vibrant and aggressive, Su, 59, is a former human rights lawyer and a co-founder of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP).
Su graduated from National Taiwan University and worked as a lawyer for 10 years before moving into politics.
Like President Chen Shui-bian (
Dubbed the "Kaohsiung Incident," thousands took to the streets of the southern city to demand greater political freedom in the first public expression of dissent against the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government.
Hundreds of people, including 140 police, 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 injustice surrounding the incident, Su began defending dissidents charged with treason before deciding to enter politics himself. 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.
The DPP, which won the presidency in 2000, ended the KMT's half-century rule of the nation.
Su, a father of three, was elected as Pingtung County commissioner in 1989, but failed to get re-elected in controversial polls four years later.
He won a seat in the Legislative Yuan in 1995 and became Taipei County commissioner, the largest constituency on the island, in 1997. He was re-elected in 2001.
Su was chosen as Chen's chief of the staff in 2004 and was elected DPP chairman the following year.
He resigned in December that year as chairman to take responsibility for the DPP's defeat in local elections.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
BREACH OF CONTRACT: The bus operators would seek compensation and have demanded that the manufacturer replace the chips with ones that meet regulations Two bus operators found to be using buses with China-made chips are to demand that the original manufacturers replace the systems and provide compensation for breach of contract, the Veterans Affairs Council said yesterday. Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Michelle Lin (林楚茵) yesterday said that Da Nan Bus Co and Shin-Shin Bus Co Ltd have fielded a total of 82 buses that are using Chinese chips. The bus models were made by Tron-E, while the systems provider was CYE Electronics, Lin said. Lin alleged that the buses were using chips manufactured by Huawei subsidiary HiSilicon Co, which presents a national security risk if the
The National Immigration Agency has banned two Chinese from returning to Taiwan, after they published social media content it described as disrespectful to national sovereignty. The agency imposed a two-month ban on a Chinese man surnamed Liang (梁) and a permanent ban on a woman surnamed Yang (楊), an influencer with 23 million followers, in October last year and last week respectively. Minister of the Interior Liu Shyh-fang (劉世芳) yesterday said on the sidelines of a legislative meeting that Chinese visitors to Taiwan are required to comply with the rules and regulations governing their entry permits. The government has handled the ban and
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