New Power Party (NPP) legislators yesterday expressed shock after NPP board of chairmen member Neil Peng (馮光遠) announced his resignation from the party on Sunday night in an apparent break with NPP Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌).
“We will keep communication channels open — we are all shocked and the party will address the matter internally,” NPP caucus whip Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) said, adding that Peng had only limited participation in party caucus affairs.
“We will try to persuade him to stay and hope that he can continue to work with us,” NPP Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) said.
“There might have been some internal miscommunication and we should all bear responsibility for this,” he added.
Peng, in a Facebook Live broadcast on Sunday night, announced he was leaving the party, saying he was unwilling to allow the “fruits of my labor” to be “harvested by certain people.”
“The NPP has already degenerated into a ‘national prosperity party,’” he said, in an apparent jab at Huang, whose name consists of Mandarin characters for the words “nation” and “prosperous.”
“Some people wearing the mask of reform — fascists, hypocrites, whatever you call them — have been easily harvesting the fruits of everyone’s labor,” Peng added. “The time has come for me to stop holding the spotlight on others.”
Peng was the sole dissenting voice on the board after Huang was re-elected as party executive chairman following last year’s presidential and legislative elections, saying that someone other than a legislator should be executive chairman.
He was the party’s candidate in a New Taipei City legislative district, but withdrew his candidacy due to pressure from the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) to avoid splitting the pan-green camp vote.
On Sunday he said that his candidacy had become a “bargaining chip” between the NPP and the DPP, with Huang and caucus whip Hsu absent from the list of people he thanked during his broadcast, which included the NPP’s other three legislators.
He declined to comment yesterday on whether his “national prosperity party” comment was directed at Huang, saying only that Huang had performed well as a lawmaker.
NPP Secretary-General Chen Hui-min (陳惠敏) said Peng had remained a member of the board until he announced his resignation on Sunday.
No replacement election is likely to take place because the board retains its required quorum, she said.
While Huang could not be reached for comment, his aide, Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), appeared to condemn Peng’s comments in a Facebook post.
“An older person who operates on a different tempo has arrogantly and publicly harmed the person our team seeks to protect the most,” he said, drawing comments from netizens.
Some netizens called Peng an “opportunist” and “an old man only interested in flaunting himself,” while others criticized Chen’s post, accusing Huang of not wanting to “get his hands dirty,” and choosing to respond via his aides.
Chen’s post was no longer online at press time last night.
Lee Chao-li (李兆立), another Huang aide, posted a comment to Peng’s video, thanking him for his contribution and wishing him well, while promising the NPP would continue to hold firm to its values and work hard to implement reforms.
Additional reporting by Hsiao Ting-fang
“China is preparing to invade Taiwan,” Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an exclusive interview with British media channel Sky News for a special report titled, “Is Taiwan ready for a Chinese invasion?” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said today in a statement. The 25-minute-long special report by Helen Ann-Smith released yesterday saw Sky News travel to Penghu, Taoyuan and Taipei to discuss the possibility of a Chinese invasion and how Taiwan is preparing for an attack. The film observed emergency response drills, interviewed baseball fans at the Taipei Dome on their views of US President
ECONOMIC BENEFITS: The imports from Belize would replace those from Honduras, whose shrimp exports have dropped 67 percent since cutting ties in 2023 Maintaining ties with Taiwan has economic benefits, Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said yesterday, citing the approval of frozen whiteleg shrimp imports from Belize by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as an example. The FDA on Wednesday approved the tariff-free imports from Belize after the whiteleg shrimp passed the Systematic Inspection of Imported Food, which would continue to boost mutual trade, the ministry said. Taiwan’s annual consumption of whiteleg shrimps stands at 30,000 tonnes, far exceeding domestic production, the ministry said. Taiwan used to fill the gap by importing shrimps from Honduras, but purchases slumped after Tegucigalpa severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan
The Executive Yuan yesterday approved a southwestern extension of the Sanying MRT Line from New Taipei to Bade District (八德) in Taoyuan, with a goal of starting construction by late 2026. The 4.03-kilometer extension, featuring three new stations, will run from the current terminus at Yingtao Fude Station (LB12) in New Taipei City to Dannan Station (LB14), where it will connect with Taoyuan’s Green Line, New Taipei City Metro Corp said in a statement. This extension will follow the completion of core Sanying Line, a 14.29-kilometer medium-capacity system linking Tucheng (土城), Sansia (三峽)
CARGO LOSS: About 50 containers at the stern of the ‘Ever Lunar’ cargo ship went overboard, prompting the temporary closure of the port and disrupting operations Evergreen Marine Corp, Taiwan’s largest container shipper, yesterday said that all crew members aboard the Ever Lunar (長月) were safe after dozens of containers fell overboard off the coast of Peru the previous day. The incident occurred at 9:40am on Friday as the Ever Lunar was anchored and waiting to enter the Port of Callao when it suddenly experienced severe rolling, Evergreen said in a statement. The rolling, which caused the containers to fall, might have been caused by factors including a tsunami triggered by an earthquake in Russia, poor winter sea conditions in South America or a sudden influx of waves,