Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), the son of former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), yesterday opened his campaign headquarters in his bid for a legislative position.
Chen Chih-chung, who withdrew from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in June last year, is running as an independent for the legislative seat for Greater Kaohsiung’s Cianjhen (前鎮) and Siaogang (小港) districts.
Nearly 5,000 supporters packed the venue, including members of pro-localization groups, shouting that they were going to send “Chen Chi-chung into the Legislative Yuan and to give [President] Ma [Ying-jeou] (馬英九) a lesson,” referring to the situation concerning Chen Shui-bian, who is serving a lengthy prison term for corruption.
The former president has repeatedly denied all the charges against him and his family, saying he is the victim of political persecution.
However, at a separate setting yesterday, Chen Chi-chung’s DPP opponent, Kuo Wen-cheng (郭玟成), said getting justice for Chen Shui-bian is not a matter that legislative elections alone can solve.
“The DPP cannot afford to split apart if it wants a majority in the Legislative Yuan,” Kuo said, adding that the ninth district of Greater Kaohsiung has always been the sacred ground of the DPP and the party could not afford to lose the district.
According to Kuo, DPP caucus convener Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) has tried to mediate a solution with Chen Chih-chung, proposing that after Kuo finished serving the upcoming term, Chen Chih-chung could run for the seat.
Kuo said he had agreed to the proposal, but Chen Chih-chung had refused.
Meanwhile, in response to fact Chen Chih-chung was mentioning DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in his campaigning, calling on voters to vote for Tsai for president and vote for him for the legislative seat, Tsai campaign office spokesperson Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青) said she maintained a positive view toward the issue.
However, Hsu added that any campaigns that were linking Tsai with a non-DDP candidate were not the same as “the original franchise.”
Translated by Jake Chung, Staff writer
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods