The Green Party Taiwan yesterday announced four legislator-at-large candidates for next year’s January legislative elections, while the Social Democratic Party (SDP) plans to nominate more candidates next month as part of a “Green-SDP Alliance.”
The four candidates are Green Party Taiwan co-convener Lee Ken-cheng (李根政), Taiwan Alliance to Promote Civil Partnership Rights CEO Victoria Hsu (許秀雯), veteran labor activist Chang Li-fun (張麗芬) and lawyer Thomas Chan (詹順貴).
However, the Green Party Taiwan added that it still needs to hold hearings at its local chapters to communicate with party members before ranking its legislator-at-large list, which it plans to re-rank after factoring in candidates to be nominated by the SDP next month.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
Shouting slogans, the four candidates vowed to introduce a new opposition force to the legislature’s bipartisan politics by tapping into their collective experience campaigning for environmental protection and labor rights, as well as the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights movement.
Lee said that both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) favor business conglomerates through the deregulation of environmental laws and the promotion of industries that pollute heavily and consume large amounts of energy.
Lee said there are few lawmakers who speak up for the environment and minorities, adding a new opposition party in the legislature is urgently needed to stand firm on a sustainable and localized environmental and economic platform.
Adding that a marriage equality bill has been mothballed by the legislature for almost two years since it passed its first reading in 2013, Hsu said that both the KMT and the DPP have sided with anti-LGBT camps in an attempt to win votes, paying little attention to gay rights.
A progressive force other than the two major political parties is needed to fight for the rights of LGBT groups, Hsu said, adding that her policies would be structured according to the principles of gender equality and a sustainable and fair economy.
Chang said the nation’s economic gains have only benefited large businesses, and that both the KMT and DPP have been striving for economic growth, but have paradoxically contributed to deteriorating working conditions.
Workers need to stand up against the oligarchy of major parties and businesses and unite with progressive powers to effect changes in the legislature, Chang said.
A long-time environmental activist, Chan said that social movements and his personal involvement have contributed to the creation of several acts and enactment of legal reforms.
He proposed that the alliance, should it win enough votes to gain a political party subsidy and legislative seats, divert one-third of the subsidy and one-third of its legislative assistants to social movements and empowerment programs.
SDP Secretary-General Urda Yen (嚴婉玲) said her party would nominate at least two legislator-at-large candidates from the fields of social welfare and culture next month.
In other developments, SDP legislative candidates yesterday met with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) to discuss possible collaboration if they are elected to the legislature.
SDP convener Fan Yun (范雲) said Ko’s belief that politics should “transcend the pan-blue and pan-green camps” was similar to the party’s own ideas, adding that the party hoped Ko would provide his input on how to live up to that ideal.
Fan said Ko shared with the candidates his experience in last year’s mayoral election and his predictions on the results of the legislative elections, which he said would create a political landscape composed of “one large, one medium and many smalls,” with no one party winning a majority.
Ko was quoted by Fan as saying that the “one large” would be the DPP.
Additional reporting by Sean Lin
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