The Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) yesterday introduced its three new legislators and reiterated its intention to work with its ally the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the legislature.
TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) introduced Hsu Chung-hsin (許忠信), Huang Wen-ling (黃文玲) and Lin Shih-chia (林世嘉), who will be sworn in on Feb. 1. The party garnered 1.17 million party votes in the elections on Saturday, passing the 5 percent threshold and winning three legislator at-large seats.
Huang Kun-huei urged the DPP not to get down on itself for losing the presidential election, saying that DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) had fought a respectable war against the allied forces of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), the Chinese Communist Party and Taiwanese tycoons who threatened the people against voting for her.
Photo: Chien Jung-feng, Taipei Times
Supporters of the pan-green camp should stay together and never hold their heads down, he said.
Huang Kun-huei said that Taiwan could enjoy healthy economic development even without closer trade and investment relations with China, citing the nation’s economic performance during former president Lee Teng-hui’s (李登輝) administration as evidence.
“The TSU insists on a Taiwan-centric economic policy,” he said.
The TSU made clear its intention to collaborate with the DPP in the elections when it endorsed Tsai for the presidential election. It only nominated 10 candidates for legislators-at-large and did not nominate any candidate to run in local districts.
The party received a surprisingly high support in the elections after Huang Kun-huei announced on the eve of the elections that the party would disband if it failed to surpass the 5 percent threshold.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult
A Taiwanese academic yesterday said that Chinese Ambassador to Denmark Wang Xuefeng (王雪峰) disrespected Denmark and Japan when he earlier this year allegedly asked Japan’s embassy to make Taiwan’s representatives leave an event in Copenhagen. The Danish-language Berlingske on Sunday reported the incident in an article with the headline “The emperor’s birthday ended in drama in Copenhagen: More conflict may be on the way between Denmark and China.” It said that on Feb. 26, the Japanese embassy in Denmark held an event for Japanese Emperor Naruhito’s birthday, with about 200 guests in attendance, including representatives from Taiwan. After addressing the Japanese hosts, Wang