Former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) chairperson Hsu Hsin-liang (許信良) submitted an 11th-hour presidential bid before registration closed yesterday, making him the third candidate to vie for the DPP ticket.
Hsu, a vocal critic of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) administration, said that while he realized he had a slim chance of winning, his bid would draw light to issues including growing income disparity and poverty.
“This is not the first time I have done this and my goal is to make society care about the issues I hold close to my heart,” he said. “This is my motive; I have no other motives.”
The former democracy activist arrived unannounced at DPP headquarters just after 3pm, signing registration papers and paying the NT$5 million (US$170,000) fee, which he had borrowed earlier in the day. This means that Hsu will be able to join the four televised DPP policy sessions and polls to be held next month.
Hsu has a somewhat mixed -reputation within the DPP, which he headed for two terms, from 1992 to 1993 and 1996 to 1998. Disillusioned with Chen, Hsu launched an independent presidential bid in 2000 and stumped for the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) in 2004.
However, he supported DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (謝長廷) in 2008 and rejoined the party after Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) was elected chairperson in May that year.
During his announcement, Hsu praised Tsai and Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), the DPP’s two presidential frontrunners, who registered earlier this week, calling them “talented.”
He said that if either was elected next year, “I’m sure they would make a very good president.”
“However, I feel they need to do some rethinking on some of their basic [positions],” he said.
In a four-page statement given to the media, Hsu outlined his positions on social welfare and cross-strait relations, saying that deeper economic ties with China would benefit Taiwan’s tourism industry and the stock market.
“If the next Taiwanese president impedes Taiwan’s economic interests because of politics, they would not be a good president, regardless of how they or their supporters try to spin it,” he said.
Hsu’s participation in the DPP primaries will throw a curveball in what was to be a straightforward contest between Tsai and Su. Despite what he calls his slim chances of being elected, Hsu will nevertheless be in a position to play a major part in future policy sessions and be included in the telephone polls to select the candidate.
Several senior party officials were reportedly concerned over Hsu’s inclusion in the DPP primaries, fearing he could serve as a wildcard in upcoming negotiations between Tsai and Su.
Hsu has said he would not campaign over the next month, but he is expected to participate in the four televised policy sessions.
Initially, Hsu had hoped to register sooner, but was impeded by a lack of money, he said.
The NT$5 million fee — two-thirds of which would be returned if he dropped out of the race — was “borrowed from a friend,” he said, and would have to be repaid.
Asked to comment on Hsu’s entry in the race, Tsai said that though she found it surprising, she welcomed his participation in the primaries.
For his part, Su said that he hoped the primaries would proceed “without controversy.”
Su refused to say whether Hsu’s participation on the ballot could impact the telephone polls.
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
RSS