The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday vowed to garner five to seven seats in next year’s legislative elections, while accusing the People First Party (PFP) of being an “accomplice” of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), saying that it should not be counted as one of Taiwan’s “third force” political parties.
“The objective of the NPP is to play a key role in reforming the Legislative Yuan and we are willing to work with the Democratic Progressive Party [DPP], which might become the largest party in the legislature, and to assist DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) reform proposals,” NPP party-building taskforce captain and Academia Sinica research fellow Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said at a fundraising luncheon for the party. “As for the legislative election, we’re looking to take five to seven seats.”
However, when commenting on the DPP’s willingness to work with the PFP for seats in Taipei’s Neihu (內湖) and Nangang (南港) districts, as well as the PFP’s ambition to benefit from the rise of the alternative political force, Huang said that the PFP should not be considered as a third force political party.
PHOTO: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
“PFP and KMT lawmakers often share their support or opposition to the same bills. The PFP is an accomplice of President Ma Ying-jeou’s [馬英九] administration, and should not be considered an alternative political party,” Huang said.
Asked if he would run in the legislative election, Huang said that he “has not ruled out any possibility at this time,” but added that his main objective now was to help the NPP win as many votes as possible, and to garner more than 10 percent of legislator-at-large ballots.
“It’s not that important whether I get elected to a legislative seat,” Huang said.
In other constituencies, the NPP’s nominee for New Taipei City’s Tamsui District (淡水) Neil Peng (馮光遠) said that he is willing to negotiate with DPP candidate Lu Sun-ling (呂孫綾) over the seat, however, he said the final candidate should be decided by opinion poll.
The NPP candidate for Hsinchu City, Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智), on the other hand, said he would not yield if the DPP nominates its caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) for the constituency, as Ker has always been involved in murky politics.
Former Czech Republic-based Taiwanese researcher Cheng Yu-chin (鄭宇欽) has been sentenced to seven years in prison on espionage-related charges, China’s Ministry of State Security announced yesterday. China said Cheng was a spy for Taiwan who “masqueraded as a professor” and that he was previously an assistant to former Cabinet secretary-general Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰). President-elect William Lai (賴清德) on Wednesday last week announced Cho would be his premier when Lai is inaugurated next month. Today is China’s “National Security Education Day.” The Chinese ministry yesterday released a video online showing arrests over the past 10 years of people alleged to be
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
LIKE FAMILY: People now treat dogs and cats as family members. They receive the same medical treatments and tests as humans do, a veterinary association official said The number of pet dogs and cats in Taiwan has officially outnumbered the number of human newborns last year, data from the Ministry of Agriculture’s pet registration information system showed. As of last year, Taiwan had 94,544 registered pet dogs and 137,652 pet cats, the data showed. By contrast, 135,571 babies were born last year. Demand for medical care for pet animals has also risen. As of Feb. 29, there were 5,773 veterinarians in Taiwan, 3,993 of whom were for pet animals, statistics from the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency showed. In 2022, the nation had 3,077 pediatricians. As of last
XINJIANG: Officials are conducting a report into amending an existing law or to enact a special law to prohibit goods using forced labor Taiwan is mulling an amendment prohibiting the importation of goods using forced labor, similar to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) passed by the US Congress in 2021 that imposed limits on goods produced using forced labor in China’s Xinjiang region. A government official who wished to remain anonymous said yesterday that as the US customs law explicitly prohibits the importation of goods made using forced labor, in 2021 it passed the specialized UFLPA to limit the importation of cotton and other goods from China’s Xinjiang Uyghur region. Taiwan does not have the legal basis to prohibit the importation of goods