A petition to recall Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Tsai Chin-lung (蔡錦隆) managed to garner the support of 2 percent of eligible voters in his constituency — Greater Taichung’s Nantun (南屯) and Shitun (西屯) districts — and received approval from the Central Election Commission on Monday.
The news brings Total Recall — a campaign to recall inept legislators in Greater Taichung — one step closer to launching a recall referendum with the goal of ousting Tsai.
The petition’s success followed on the heels of a landmark achievement by the Appendectomy Project — a similar campaign in Taipei with the goal of recalling KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) — which launched its official Recall Headquarters in Taipei’s Neihu District (內湖) on Sunday.
Total Recall organizers said that Tsai Chin-lung had failed the public through his track record of backing unpopular policies, including his support for nuclear energy, his endorsement of importing agricultural products from China, and his opposition to raising the minimum wage.
To initiate a referendum on Tsai’s fate, Total Recall requires the support of 13 percent of eligible voters — or nearly 40,000 signatories — for the second phase of the petition, from Saturday to Feb. 16.
Given that the petition’s second phase is more challenging with its high threshold and 30-day limit, the campaign has ramped up recruitment efforts for volunteers among Taichung residents, a member of Total Recall surnamed Chen said.
An Appendectomy Project spokesperson known as Mr Lin from Taipei (台北林先生) said that the project would share their experiences in Taipei with their fellow activists in Taichung.
Additional reporting by Su Fang-ho
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS