Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) plans to publish a new book next month, recounting her journeys, physically and mentally, since the last election.
In Ing’s Clique: The Last Mile to Light Up Taiwan (英派 — 點亮台灣的一哩路, tentative translation), Tsai writes that she has been traveling across the nation since she lost the 2012 presidential election, trying to find out what the public needs and what she can do for them as a politician.
“I have fallen, and tried to get up,” she said. “In the past few years, I have traveled around, trying to observe and understand the problems that people are facing. A politician must think from the public’s perspective, to find whether a policy would bring convenience or burden to the public when it is implemented in the lives of the ordinary.”
The book records changes in the society, as well as what Tsai has seen in the past three years from seven perspectives, which she calls “the seven Ings.”
“If the seven Ings could attract a group of people belonging to the ‘Ing’s clique’ to change the nation, then what I have done in the past three years is worth it,” Tsai wrote.
She said the term “Ing’s clique,” which has the same pronunciation as “hawk faction” in Mandarin, does not mean it is a small political faction loyal to her personally. She said the term came to her when she was speaking at a rally in Keelung earlier in the year, and was touched by the passion of the crowd.
“I felt I needed to give a powerful name for ‘us,’ the group of people who want to change the destiny of the nation, and therefore ‘we are all Ing’s clique’ popped out from my mouth,” Tsai wrote. “I expect ‘Ing’s clique’ to be a large crowd, and I expect ‘Ing’s clique’ to be a group of people to be remembered in Taiwan’s history, and to be remembered as a group of reformers.”
The book is Tsai’s third. Her first, an autobiography titled From Scrambled Eggs with Onions to Little Ing Lunchboxes — The Life Experiences of Tsai Ing-wen (洋蔥炒蛋到小英便當: 蔡英文的人生滋味) was published during the 2012 presidential campaign, while a collection of photographs from the campaign trail titled Together and Forever: Our Journeys with Tsai Ing-wen (一直同在 Together & Forever: 我們和小英一起走過的旅程) was published later that year.
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
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,
The American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) put Taiwan in danger, Ma Ying-jeou Foundation director Hsiao Hsu-tsen (蕭旭岑) said yesterday, hours after the de facto US embassy said that Beijing had misinterpreted World War II-era documents to isolate Taiwan. The AIT’s comments harmed the Republic of China’s (ROC) national interests and contradicted a part of the “six assurances” stipulating that the US would not change its official position on Taiwan’s sovereignty, Hsiao said. The “six assurances,” which were given by then-US president Ronald Reagan to Taiwan in 1982, say that Washington would not set a date for ending arm sales to Taiwan, consult