While Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) is yet to make his final decision on whether to enter the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) primary for next year’s presidential election, Taiwan Brain Trust chairman Wu Rong-i (吳榮義) said that Lai has less support within the party than DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文).
When the DPP’s Central Standing Committee decided last week that it would bring the nomination process for next year’s presidential election forward, former presidential adviser Koo Kwang-ming (辜寬敏) criticized Tsai, saying she had made the decision so that other competitors would not have sufficient time to prepare.
Koo went on to declare his support for Lai in the presidential race, and said that the Taiwan Brain Trust would make public a poll on support for Lai at a press conference on Wednesday.
However, while results for several aspects of domestic and cross-strait politics were released, there was nothing on Lai’s support rate.
Asked about it during a separate press conference yesterday, Wu promised that the think tank would eventually publicize the poll results for Lai.
“Lai is making his final decision now, so we decided to release the poll result later, to avoid affecting his decisionmaking,” Wu told the media.
However, when further asked if the think tank decided not to publicize the poll result because Lai’s support was falling behind Tsai’s, Wu said: “It’s not possible to have a poll result with Lai winning over Tsai.”
“Tsai has long been preparing for the presidential race, but the news that Lai may also run in the election has just surfaced,” he said.
While both Koo and Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) have expressed their support for Lai in the presidential race, Lai declined to comment yesterday, saying that it was not an appropriate time to discuss the issue as the nation mourns over the plane crash.
However, earlier, Lai said that he would announce his final decision on Monday during a book launch.
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
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
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The Republic of China Army Command yesterday relieved Kinmen Defense Battalion commander after authorities indicted the officer on charges connected to using methamphetamine. The Kinmen District Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday detained Colonel He (何) after the Coast Guard linked him to drug shipments and proceeded to charge him yesterday for using and possessing crystal meth. The man was released on a NT$50,000 bail and banned from leaving Kinmen, the office said. Army Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Chen Chien-yi (陳建義) told a news conference yesterday that He has been removed and another officer is taking over the unit as the acting commander. The military
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