Former vice president Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) has announced his campaign team for his bid to become chairman of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), as well as a campaign theme song.
Wu on Friday said that he has asked former Mainland Affairs Council deputy minister Chang Hsien-yao (張顯耀) to be the campaign manager, while Shih Chien University professor Chiang Min-chin (江岷欽), former KMT lawmaker Lee Ching-hua (李慶華) and National Taiwan University professor Lin Huo-wang (林火旺) have been asked to act as spokespeople.
Wu’s campaign office will be in the Taiwan Glass building on Nanjing E Road in Taipei and will officially open after the Lunar New Year holiday, which begins on Friday next week until Feb. 1.
Photo: CNA
Wu said he wrote the lyrics for the campaign song himself, adding that he wanted to write a song that sounded good and was easy to remember.
In response to media queries whether his choice of Chang as campaign manager would be an issue given his previous legal troubles, Wu said he had known Chang for more than a decade and his contribution toward the KMT and People First Party alliance in 2008 was quite significant.
In 2014 Chang was accused by then-president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) administration of leaking state secrets to China. The Taipei Prosecutors’ Office in 2015 said that it had closed the case because there was not enough evidence to support the allegations.
Meanwhile, former KMT vice chairman Steve Chan (詹啟賢), who tendered his resignation on Jan. 7, said he was considering running in the chairperson election, adding that he would not make the decision quickly.
Chan said he would try to make a decision before the Lunar New Year holidays.
The Chinese-language China Times reported on Jan. 7 that Chan quit over KMT Chairwoman Hung Hsiu-chu’s (洪秀柱) disavowal of an administrative contract that he secured from Ill-gotten Party Assets Committee Chairman Wellington Koo (顧立雄), which was said to be fully authorized by Hung, but which she later refused to sign.
Hung has dismissed the report, asking the media not to “maliciously drive a wedge” between her and Chan.
Additional reporting by Liao Shu-ling
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not