Despite having sought a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) nomination for next year’s legislative election, Soochow University associate professor Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) yesterday announced that he would join the New Power Party (NPP) and withdraw from running for district representation.
“I’ve never joined any political party, but since I agree with the NPP’s ideologies and would like to share the responsibility with my friends in the NPP to create a new political party with progressive values, I hereby announce that I am joining the party,” Hsu told a news conference at NPP headquarters in Taipei yesterday.
“I have also decided to withdraw from running for the legislative seats representing the eight electoral districts in Taichung, including Fengyuan (豐原), Shigang (石岡), Shinshe (新社), Dongshi (東勢) and Heping (和平), and plan to support DPP nominee Hsieh Chih-chung (謝志忠),” he added.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Hsu said his father is a native of Shengang District (神岡), and his mother comes from Fengyuan, which is why he decided to help NPP candidate Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈庸) and the DPP’s Hsieh in their respective electoral districts, rather than running himself.
Asked if he would choose to represent the NPP in other districts, Hsu said he has to keep the promise he made to supporters in the district, which means running in another district would not be an option, adding that he would only play a helping role.
However, when asked if he would seek to be on the NPP’s at-large list, Hsu did not give a direct answer, saying only that his promise so far is not to run in Taichung’s eight electoral districts.
Academia Sinica research fellow and NPP member Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said that the NPP would not decide its at-large list in an arbitrary manner.
“We are against dated political behavior, where a few people would meet behind closed doors and come up with an at-large list. We want to allow people outside of the party to participate in the decisionmaking process,” Huang said. “Of course, if everyone wants Hsu on the at-large list, he would be, and vice versa.”
At a separate setting, DPP spokesperson Juan Chao-hsiung (阮昭雄) said that the party would respect each person’s decision, adding that it would continue to work alongside the third political force to maximize the number of seats the DPP and its non-Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) allies could win.
The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday said it had deployed patrol vessels to expel a China Coast Guard ship and a Chinese fishing boat near Pratas Island (Dongsha Island, 東沙群島) in the South China Sea. The China Coast Guard vessel was 28 nautical miles (52km) northeast of Pratas at 6:15am on Thursday, approaching the island’s restricted waters, which extend 24 nautical miles from its shoreline, the CGA’s Dongsha-Nansha Branch said in a statement. The Tainan, a 2,000-tonne cutter, was deployed by the CGA to shadow the Chinese ship, which left the area at 2:39pm on Friday, the statement said. At 6:31pm on Friday,
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, would pose a steep challenge to Taiwan’s ability to defend itself against a full-scale invasion, a defense expert said yesterday. Institute of National Defense and Security Research analyst Chieh Chung (揭仲) made the comment hours after the PLAN confirmed the carrier recently passed through the Taiwan Strait to conduct “scientific research tests and training missions” in the South China Sea. China has two carriers in operation — the Liaoning and the Shandong — with the Fujian undergoing sea trials. Although the PLAN needs time to train the Fujian’s air wing and
STRIKE: Some travel agencies in Taiwan said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group tours to the country were proceeding as planned A planned strike by airport personnel in South Korea has not affected group tours to the country from Taiwan, travel agencies said yesterday. They added that they were closely monitoring the situation. Personnel at 15 airports, including Seoul’s Incheon and Gimpo airports, are to go on strike. They announced at a news conference on Tuesday that the strike would begin on Friday next week and continue until the Mid-Autumn Festival next month. Some travel agencies in Taiwan, including Cola Tour, Lion Travel, SET Tour and ezTravel, said that they were aware of the situation in South Korea, and that group
Taiwanese celebrities Hank Chen (陳漢典) and Lulu Huang (黃路梓茵) announced yesterday that they are planning to marry. Huang announced and posted photos of their engagement to her social media pages yesterday morning, joking that the pair were not just doing marketing for a new show, but “really getting married.” “We’ve decided to spend all of our future happy and hilarious moments together,” she wrote. The announcement, which was later confirmed by the talent agency they share, appeared to come as a surprise even to those around them, with veteran TV host Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) saying he was “totally taken aback” by the news. Huang,
RSS