Annie Lee (李安妮), the daughter of former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝), has been invited to be included on the Taiwan Solidarity Union’s (TSU) legislators-at-large list, according to party officials.
The 47-year-old daughter of Taiwan’s first democratically elected president could be listed as No. 1 on the roster in an attempt to push the party vote above 5 percent and garner the TSU a seat — even though it remains uncertain whether she plans to accept the invitation.
“She’s considering the idea and hasn’t given a response,” TSU Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) said.
TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) will reportedly discuss the proposal on Monday when the legislator at-large roster is finalized.
This isn’t the first time the TSU has hoped that Annie Lee, a women’s rights advocate, would represent the party in major elections. She was asked in 2002 to represent the party in the Taipei mayoral elections against President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), an offer she rejected.
The TSU, which had 12 legislators after winning 7.8 percent of the vote in 2001, has since failed to get a single national lawmaker elected since 2008 — although it is hoping to capitalize on a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) rebound and campaigning by Lee Teng-hui, its spiritual leader.
DPP lawmakers have said it is “no surprise” that the smaller pro-independence party hopes to nominate Annie Lee to drive up not only vote recognition, but its general prospects.
DPP Legislator Huang Wei-cher (黃偉哲) said “the TSU plans to nominate Annie Lee based on their political considerations.”
The news comes after her father was indicted on corruption charges. The 88-year-old has been indicted by prosecutors for siphoning US$7.8 million from secret diplomatic funds to establish a private think tank when he was in office between 1988 and 2000. He has called the allegations baseless.
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:
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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