Rumors are circulating in Tainan political circles that Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) is considering running for New Taipei City mayor should New Taipei City Mayor and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) announce a bid for next year’s presidential election, while Lai’s ambiguous response to the rumor yesterday served only to further speculation.
“I have not yet decided [whether to run for New Taipei City mayor],” Lai said. “It seems like someone [intentionally] spread the rumor to hold Chu back from giving up his position and running for president... I do not want to spoil the effect of the rumor by giving a specific statement.”
“I’ve never said that I would serve out my four-year term. What I said was: ‘I would do my best to manage city affairs,’” Lai added.
Lai’s team reportedly “feels uncomfortable” at Lai’s renunciation of his bid for the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential nomination and his supporters have been urging him to “take his political career to the next level,” people in Tainan political circles said.
That “next level” might include the vice presidency or premiership, if presidential candidate and DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) names Lai as her running mate, or if she wins next year’s presidential election and appoints Lai as the premier, the people said, adding that another option for Lai would be to “venture into northern Taiwan to expand his political territory.”
Taking into account Lai’s character, it is unlikely that he would be comfortable as Tsai’s deputy, people close to Lai said, adding that it remains uncertain whether Lai would assume the premiership if Tsai is elected president.
Until the uncertainties are resolved, it would be better for Lai to “depend on himself” and make a bid for New Taipei City mayor in order to enrich his political experience by serving as mayor in municipalities in both southern and northern Taiwan, which could boost his electoral chances for the 2020 or 2024 presidential elections, people in Tainan political circles said.
If Chu resigns as New Taipei City mayor to run in the presidential election, it is likely that Lai would run in the mayoral by-election for New Taipei City, the people said.
If he were to do that, Lai would have to resign as Tainan mayor, leading to a by-election for Tainan mayor, which is a cause of concern for Lai, they added.
Taiwanese can file complaints with the Tourism Administration to report travel agencies if their activities caused termination of a person’s citizenship, Mainland Affairs Council Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday, after a podcaster highlighted a case in which a person’s citizenship was canceled for receiving a single-use Chinese passport to enter Russia. The council is aware of incidents in which people who signed up through Chinese travel agencies for tours of Russia were told they could obtain Russian visas and fast-track border clearance, Chiu told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Taipei. However, the travel agencies actually applied
Japanese footwear brand Onitsuka Tiger today issued a public apology and said it has suspended an employee amid allegations that the staff member discriminated against a Vietnamese customer at its Taipei 101 store. Posting on the social media platform Threads yesterday, a user said that an employee at the store said that “those shoes are very expensive” when her friend, who is a migrant worker from Vietnam, asked for assistance. The employee then ignored her until she asked again, to which she replied: "We don't have a size 37." The post had amassed nearly 26,000 likes and 916 comments as of this
New measures aimed at making Taiwan more attractive to foreign professionals came into effect this month, the National Development Council said yesterday. Among the changes, international students at Taiwanese universities would be able to work in Taiwan without a work permit in the two years after they graduate, explainer materials provided by the council said. In addition, foreign nationals who graduated from one of the world’s top 200 universities within the past five years can also apply for a two-year open work permit. Previously, those graduates would have needed to apply for a work permit using point-based criteria or have a Taiwanese company
The Shilin District Prosecutors’ Office yesterday indicted two Taiwanese and issued a wanted notice for Pete Liu (劉作虎), founder of Shenzhen-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus Technology Co (萬普拉斯科技), for allegedly contravening the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例) by poaching 70 engineers in Taiwan. Liu allegedly traveled to Taiwan at the end of 2014 and met with a Taiwanese man surnamed Lin (林) to discuss establishing a mobile software research and development (R&D) team in Taiwan, prosecutors said. Without approval from the government, Lin, following Liu’s instructions, recruited more than 70 software
RSS