With the Chinese Nationalist Party's (KMT) selection of a vice presidential candidate rapidly descending into a melodrama, public and media attention has shifted to the Democratic Progressive Party's (DPP) search for a running mate for its presidential candidate, Frank Hsieh (謝長廷).
Hsieh yesterday remained tightlipped about his choice of a running mate, saying he would carefully consider and respect the feelings of any potential candidate.
Despite Hsieh's reticence, it is widely believed that former acting Kaohsiung mayor Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭) is the front-runner. Hsieh confirmed before the primary that he did talk about pairing up with Yeh if he won the nomination, while emphasizing that gender was not an issue in his selection of a running mate.
Hsieh publicly praised Yeh before the nomination, saying she would be his No. 1 choice if he could pick his running mate freely. However, he also said that things might not turn out as he willed as he had to respect the opinion of party heavyweights and that of President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen, who reportedly favors former premier Su Tseng-chang (
Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮), however, thinks differently. She has urged Hsieh to pick a running mate who is cooperative and in whom who he could confide in during the four-year term. The running mate must complement him in various areas, she said, including gender and expertise.
The Hakka population could not agree with Lu more. Nearly 50 Hakka groups around the world have come out in support of Yeh, calling on Hsieh to nominate a Hakka as his running mate.
Chao Yung-mau (
Yeh complements Hsieh because she is a Hakka, a woman and gets on well with the presidential candidate. Su's strengths are his mobilization power. A Hsieh-Su ticket would therefore create a strong image of a united party, he said.
Chao said it would be a waste of Su's talents to serve as vice president, but if called, Su must put the interest of the party and the nation before his own because the DPP would suffer a great loss if it failed to win the election.
Hu Tsu-ching (
Hsieh could shake off the burden placed upon him by Chen if he defied Chen's preference and paired up with Yeh, Hu said.
Yu had planned to nominate Lu and Su as legislators-at-large, a move some interpreted as a means to clear the way for Yeh's nomination.
However, the two turned down the offer, giving rise to speculation they are still waiting for an opportunity to replace Hsieh if he were indicted for graft over his use of the special allowance fund as Kaohsiung mayor. Hsieh has made it clear that he would drop out of the race if he were indicted.
Chao said it was understandable for Su and Lu to turn down the offer to run in the legislative elections because they are waiting for a chance to stage a comeback.
If Hsieh wins the presidency, Su and Lu might be appointed to bigger positions, Chao said. And if Hsieh loses or drops out of the race, they have a good chance of taking over, he said.
In addition to Lu and Su, Hsieh might want to look for party's disbanded New Tide faction. The faction's old guard, Wu Nai-jen (
Some argued that Wu's move was a deliberate attempt to embarrass Hsieh, but Chao said that Wu was playing the "good cop, bad cop" with Vice Premier Chiou I-jen (
Chao said that Wu must have given much thought on how to keep the faction members together after they losing heavily in the party's legislative primary. Many faction members blamed infighting for their loss.
Hu echoed this view, saying he did not think Wu was the kind of person who would do things to hurt Hsieh or the party.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching