Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) yesterday said he would “carefully consider” the possibility of running for president and dismissed a television report claiming to have obtained a draft of a statement by Wang on a decision to run.
With New Taipei City Mayor and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) declaring his disinclination to join the presidential race and Wang retaining his KMT party membership after a court case against him concluded last week, it has been widely speculated that the speaker would soon announce his intention to seek the KMT nomination for next year’s presidential election.
Wang, after weeks of equivocal answers, said that he would seriously consider the possibility of running.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
“As I have said before, I have never denied that possibility,” he said.
Regarding the “exclusive report” aired by Next TV on Tuesday night that claimed to have secured a draft copy of a declaration on his intention to join the race, Wang said he had no idea where it came from.
According to the report, Wang said in a 22-page statement to be made public on Sunday that he is “a precious national asset,” as he has more than 40 years of experience in politics and connections with Taiwanese, including his political feud with President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and work during the Sunflower movement.
With his experience, Wang could solve the political impasse and push for cross-party cooperation, the report said.
Wang laughed off the “exclusive expose,” saying that if he was to announce anything, “it would not possibly end in more than five, six or seven minutes.”
Wang said that speeches he has given in the past have lasted only a few minutes, including one he made at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on his return from Malaysia in September 2013, the beginning of the “September strife,” in which Ma accused Wang of improper use of influence, and a speech he delivered at the Legislative Yuan during the Sunflower movement last year.
“Who would give such a long speech when declaring his or her intention to run?” asked Wang, adding that the next step, if there is to be one, would be simply signing up for the primary, not presidential candidacy itself.
“You could figure it out with your knees [that the 22-page declaration is a fake],” he said.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS