Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Tuan Yi-kang (段宜康) rejected a report that president-elect Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) would quit as party chairperson and that Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) would likely take over the position.
A report published on Saturday by online news portal Storm Media said that Tsai would quit as DPP chairperson to focus on her new job as president and that Chen might become the party’s next leader.
The report’s source might be a politically motivated person from the party, Tuan wrote on Facebook yesterday, adding that he does not think Chen would be interested in taking over the party’s leadership.
Photo: Chang Chung-i, Taipei Times
“The rumor that Tsai would not serve both as DPP chairperson [and as president], and that Chen would become the next chairperson has suddenly become a point of focus in the media,” Tuan wrote. “Of course someone is intentionally spreading the rumor.”
Tuan said the motivation behind spreading such a rumor could be trying to prevent Tsai from quitting and Chen from taking over, adding that the person spreading the rumor is either someone who is interested in the party leadership, or would prefer that Tsai remain as chairperson so that there would not be a redistribution of power within the party.
Although Tuan did not say who he thought spread the rumor, he said: “If you look at the name of the reporter who wrote the story and trace the reporter’s personal connections, you would have an 80 to 90 percent chance of figuring out who the [source] is.”
However, whoever spread the rumor is worrying too much, Tuan said, adding that he does not believe Chen is interested in running for leadership.
“If Chen is interested, she would not have waited until now,” Tuan said. “Tsai should remain as chairperson. There is no need to vacate the position and trigger infighting within the party.”
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