Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), after what she described as a “long deliberation,” announced yesterday that she would not run for a legislative seat as an independent candidate, nor would she accept the New Party’s offer to be listed as one of the party’s legislator-at-large nominees.
Speculation had been rife that Hung, whose presidential candidacy was rescinded by the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) last month, would run for legislator in New Taipei City’s Yonghe District (永和).
Hung refused to confirm or deny the rumor on Thursday, saying she would provide an answer yesterday, which was the last day of candidacy registration.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Hung called a press conference at 3pm, officially announcing her decision that, in order to continue to push for reform in the KMT, she would stay in the party, indicating that running for legislator in Yonghe would be out of the question, as it would cost her KMT membership.
“I have said [in the extraordinary party congress that revoked her presidential candidacy] that I would not give up on the party. I could not let go of my responsibility and feelings for the KMT,” she said. “I know many in the past 20 years have left the party out of disappointment and anger, but staying is definitely not easy, because the KMT has to undergo reforms to win back people’s hearts.”
“I am very grateful, but I apologize to New Party Chairman Yok Mu-ming (郁慕明), who has, since the extraordinary party congress, tried to talk me into accepting his offer on the New Party’s legislator-at-large list,” Hung said, adding the New Party “walks on the right path” with its “unyielding stance against Taiwanese independence, dedication to safeguarding the Republic of China and maintaining cross-strait peace.”
“With its combative legislator-at-large nominees, I believe that those who have been disappointed [with the KMT] now have an alternative,” Hung said.
Among the “combative” legislator-at-large candidates nominated by the New Party are former Central Police University professor Yeh Yu-lan (葉毓蘭) and former KMT legislator Chiu Yi (邱毅), occupying the first and the second place respectively on the party’s 10-nominee list, both of whom made front-page news during the Sunflower movement last year by castigating the protesters and the occupation of the legislative Yuan’s main chamber.
Yeh said on Thursday that she has withdrawn from the KMT for the New Party’s nomination, while Chiu said he would leave the membership issue to the KMT.
FLU SEASON: Twenty-six severe cases were reported from Tuesday last week to Monday, including a seven-year-old girl diagnosed with influenza-associated encephalopathy Nearly 140,000 people sought medical assistance for diarrhea last week, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said on Tuesday. From April 7 to Saturday last week, 139,848 people sought medical help for diarrhea-related illness, a 15.7 percent increase from last week’s 120,868 reports, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The number of people who reported diarrhea-related illness last week was the fourth highest in the same time period over the past decade, Lee said. Over the past four weeks, 203 mass illness cases had been reported, nearly four times higher than the 54 cases documented in the same period
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching