Democratic Progressive Party(DPP) presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) yesterday formally announced that former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) will be his running mate in next year's presidential election.
Hsieh said Su agreed to his invitation during a telephone conversation on Tuesday night.
"Former premier Su told me that he was willing to respond to the public's expectations and shoulder the historical responsibility of being my running mate," Hsieh said at press conference at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport shortly after his return from a trip to Singapore and Indonesia.
Hsieh had been tight-lipped about who would be his running mate, even though former vice premier Yeh Chu-lan (葉菊蘭), a Hakka who enjoys support from local Hakka groups, had repeatedly expressed her interest in the position.
Hsieh expressed his gratitude to Yeh yesterday, adding that she had been "selfless" during his search for a running mate.
"In the future, we will trust her with an important position so as to live up to the expectations of the Hakka supporters," he said.
"I advocate reform as well as reconciliation and coexistence," Hsieh said.
"I believe it is impossible for Taiwan to make breakthroughs in the international arena without solidarity at home," he said.
Hsieh said although there had been conflict within the DPP during its presidential primary, the party is now cooperating smoothly.
"The promotion of coexistence should start from ourselves ... after I win the presidential election, I will also cooperate with [Chinese Nationalist Party presidential candidate] Ma Ying-jeou (
The DPP's Central Standing Committee unanimously passed a resolution supporting the Hsieh-Su ticket yesterday.
Yeh, who endorsed the resolution, said Hsieh had informed her of his decision, and that she would campaign for Hsieh.
Meanwhile, in Tainan County yesterday, Ma said: "I am ready to face any challenges, no matter who the DPP presidential pair is."
Additional reporting by Mo Yan-chih
The Taipei Department of Health yesterday said it has launched a probe into a restaurant at Far Eastern Sogo Xinyi A13 Department Store after a customer died of suspected food poisoning. A preliminary investigation on Sunday found missing employee health status reports and unsanitary kitchen utensils at Polam Kopitiam (寶林茶室) in the department store’s basement food court, the department said. No direct relationship between the food poisoning death and the restaurant was established, as no food from the day of the incident was available for testing and no other customers had reported health complaints, it said, adding that the investigation is ongoing. Later
REVENGE TRAVEL: A surge in ticket prices should ease this year, but inflation would likely keep tickets at a higher price than before the pandemic Scoot is to offer six additional flights between Singapore and Northeast Asia, with all routes transiting Taipei from April 1, as the budget airline continues to resume operations that were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic, a Scoot official said on Thursday. Vice president of sales Lee Yong Sin (李榮新) said at a gathering with reporters in Taipei that the number of flights from Singapore to Japan and South Korea with a stop in Taiwan would increase from 15 to 21 each week. That change means the number of the Singapore-Taiwan-Tokyo flights per week would increase from seven to 12, while Singapore-Taiwan-Seoul
POOR PREPARATION: Cultures can form on food that is out of refrigeration for too long and cooking does not reliably neutralize their toxins, an epidemiologist said Medical professionals yesterday said that suspected food poisoning deaths revolving around a restaurant at Far Eastern Department Store Xinyi A13 Store in Taipei could have been caused by one of several types of bacterium. Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), an epidemiologist at Academia Sinica’s Institute of Biomedical Sciences, wrote on Facebook that the death of a 39-year-old customer of the restaurant suggests the toxin involved was either “highly potent or present in massive large quantities.” People who ate at the restaurant showed symptoms within hours of consuming the food, suggesting that the poisoning resulted from contamination by a toxin and not infection of the
BAD NEIGHBORS: China took fourth place among countries spreading disinformation, with Hong Kong being used as a hub to spread propaganda, a V-Dem study found Taiwan has been rated as the country most affected by disinformation for the 11th consecutive year in a study by the global research project Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem). The nation continues to be a target of disinformation originating from China, and Hong Kong is increasingly being used as a base from which to disseminate that disinformation, the report said. After Taiwan, Latvia and Palestine ranked second and third respectively, while Nicaragua, North Korea, Venezuela and China, in that order, were the countries that spread the most disinformation, the report said. Each country listed in the report was given a score,