Former Green Party Taiwan (GPT) secretary-general Pan Han-shen (潘翰聲) and his brother Pan Han-chiang (潘翰疆) founded the Tree Party (樹黨) last month, and nominated 21 candidates for the Nov. 29 nine-in-one elections, saying that the party would represent the interests of trees and wildlife that do not have the ability or right to vote.
The Pan brothers are familiar faces in Taiwan’s environmental movement, while Pan Han-shen has also run in Taipei city councilor and legislative elections representing the GPT.
However, this time around they founded their own party on Aug. 26, with the objectives to run in the upcoming elections and represent the interests of trees, wildlife and the nation’s youth.
“In recent years, global climate change and the heat-island effect have caused temperature increases that destroy quality of life in the city,” Pan Han-shen said while explaining the idea behind the party.
“For instance, nighttime temperatures in Taipei have gone up by three degrees in the past three decades, which is four times higher than the global average. In addition, fast development have left residents of Taipei with only 6m2 of green land per person, which is much lower than all major Asian cities besides Hong Kong,” Pan Han-shen added.
“Therefore, our goal is not only to break the blue-green political deadlock, but to also break the destruction of trees and wildlife,” he said.
The party has nominated 21 candidates to run for borough warden, village warden, township mayor and city councilor positions in Taipei, New Taipei City, Yilan, Hsinchu, Miaoli and Nantou counties, as well as in Greater Taichung, Chiayi and Greater Tainan.
However, the party’s Taipei City councilor nominee, Kao Yi-hsin (高毅心), 23, was ineligible to be registered as a candidate, since the minimum age threshold for the position is 26.
Pan Ching-chu (潘靜竹), the party’s Greater Tainan city councilor candidate, admitted that it is a big challenge for her to fight for election, given the political environment.
“However, through running in the election I would also advertise my ideas for more transparency in politics and break the polarized blue-green politics in the nation,” she said.
Reacting to the founding of the Tree Party and its nomination of candidates, the GPT said in a statement issued yesterday that it has asked Pan Han-shen and Pan Han-chiang to withdraw from the party.
However, it added that it highly supports the Tree Party’s ideas and would not rule out the possibility of the two parties collaborating in future.
The first two F-16V Block 70 jets Taiwan purchased from the US were spotted unexpectedly turning back after departing from Hawaii yesterday, potentially further delaying delivery of the aircraft. Taiwan has purchased 66 of the F-16 C/D Block 70 jets to be deployed at Chihhang Air Base (志航基地) in Taitung County and operated by the air force's 7th Tactical Fighter Wing to defend Taiwan’s eastern region. Two single-seat jets, bearing serial No. 6727 and 6728, were spotted taking off from Hickam Field in Hawaii yesterday, observers said. Based on the precedent set during the delivery of Taiwan's older F-16 Block 20s, the new
Taiwan’s growing defense preparations might be sending a stronger signal to the US than to Beijing, highlighting the need for Taipei to tailor its deterrence efforts to different audiences, a US security academic said yesterday. Stanford University Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies fellow Oriana Skylar Mastro made the comment during a Taipei Security Dialogue panel examining lessons Taiwan could draw from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Mastro said she was impressed by Taiwan’s increased defense spending, emphasis on asymmetric capabilities and efforts to prepare society for conflict, but questioned whom those initiatives were influencing. She said when she asked
SIZE MATTERS: Large ships are politically attractive as visible symbols of national defense, but small surface combatants are more likely to survive an initial strike Taiwan needs to restructure its naval fleet from focusing on large warships, which are “sitting ducks” for China’s advanced tracking technology, to smaller, stealthy corvettes that are harder to detect but retain sufficient firepower to deter a Chinese invasion, a Taiwanese academic and a former US military commander said in an article published on Friday in the journal Foreign Affairs. Taiwan does not need a fleet capable of competing with the Chinese navy for traditional control of the Taiwan Strait, but rather “sea denial” capabilities that would prevent China from freely using the waterway, Taiwanese aerospace and security expert Holmes Liao
EVA Airways Corp is to raise excess baggage fees and revise other international baggage charges beginning on Sept. 29, citing higher fuel prices and rising global operating costs amid economic and geopolitical pressures. The changes would apply to international flights with travel dates on or after Sept. 29, the Taiwanese carrier said in a statement on its Web site. The revised baggage policy covers excess baggage, prepaid excess baggage, overweight and oversized baggage fees. It also covers updated pricing rules, and fees for transporting pets and sports equipment. Under the new rates, excess baggage fees would increase by between US$20 and US$90 per
RSS