Former Control Yuan president Wang Chien-shien (王建煊) has proposed that the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) back Hon Hai Group chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) as an independent candidate in next year’s presidential election.
In a letter to the Chinese-language China Times that was published yesterday, Wang said that the KMT cannot find a candidate for the presidential election because it has realized it is set to lose by a large margin no matter who represents it.
He suggested that the KMT give up nominating its own candidate and back a successful entrepreneur such as Gou, similar to the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) decision to back Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) in his campaign for office last year.
The public are “so sick and tired of” Taiwan’s political divide along pan-blue and pan-green lines that they elected Ko despite his lack of government experience, Wang said.
Hon Hai — also known as Foxconn Technology Group — is the world’s largest contract electronics maker, and produces iPhones and iPads for Apple Inc.
KMT Chairman and New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu (朱立倫) yesterday said that he had not read Wang’s letter, but Taiwan should think about what kind of president it needs rather than worry about who is interested in running.
Chu, who has repeatedly ruled out running for president despite polls indicating he would give DPP Chairperson and the party’s presidential nominee Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) the toughest challenge of any KMT candidate, said his priority was reforming the KMT in the near future and uniting the party’s strength step by step.
Other potential candidates, including Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) and Vice President Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), have yet to make their intentions known.
Some of the reluctance to run might be because any KMT candidate would be hampered by the low approval ratings of President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration and the party’s trouncing in local elections last November.
Starlux Airlines, Taiwan’s newest international carrier, has announced it would apply to join the Oneworld global airline alliance before the end of next year. In an investor conference on Monday, Starlux Airlines chief executive officer Glenn Chai (翟健華) said joining the alliance would help it access Taiwan. Chai said that if accepted, Starlux would work with other airlines in the alliance on flight schedules, passenger transits and frequent flyer programs. The Oneworld alliance has 13 members, including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific and Qantas, and serves more than 900 destinations in 170 territories. Joining Oneworld would also help boost
A new tropical storm formed late yesterday near Guam and is to approach closest to Taiwan on Thursday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Tropical Storm Pulasan became the 14th named storm of the year at 9:25pm yesterday, the agency said. As of 8am today, it was near Guam traveling northwest at 21kph, it said. The storm’s structure is relatively loose and conditions for strengthening are limited, WeatherRisk analyst Wu Sheng-yu (吳聖宇) said on Facebook. Its path is likely to be similar to Typhoon Bebinca, which passed north of Taiwan over Japan’s Ryukyu Islands and made landfall in Shanghai this morning, he said. However, it
Taiwan's Gold Apollo Co (金阿波羅通信) said today that the pagers used in detonations in Lebanon the day before were not made by it, but by a company called BAC which has a license to use its brand. At least nine people were killed and nearly 3,000 wounded when pagers used by Hezbollah members detonated simultaneously across Lebanon yesterday. Images of destroyed pagers analyzed by Reuters showed a format and stickers on the back that were consistent with pagers made by Gold Apollo. A senior Lebanese security source told Reuters that Hezbollah had ordered 5,000 pagers from Taiwan-based Gold Apollo. "The product was not
COLD FACTS: ‘Snow skin’ mooncakes, made with a glutinous rice skin and kept at a low temperature, have relatively few calories compared with other mooncakes Traditional mooncakes are a typical treat for many Taiwanese in the lead-up to the Mid-Autumn Festival, but a Taipei-based dietitian has urged people not to eat more than one per day and not to have them every day due to their high fat and calorie content. As mooncakes contain a lot of oil and sugar, they can have negative health effects on older people and those with diabetes, said Lai Yu-han (賴俞含), a dietitian at Taipei Hospital of the Ministry of Health and Welfare. “The maximum you can have is one mooncake a day, and do not eat them every day,” Lai