Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) yesterday said she would not run for president in 2024 or take over Premier Lin Chuan’s (林全) position, denying rumors that the popular mayor might seek a higher position.
When asked during a radio interview if she would join the presidential race in 2024 or support Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德) in a potential bid for the presidency, Chen said she would be best as an aide to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) presidential candidate, as she had previously helped candidates secure election victories.
Chen said she would fully support President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) in seeking re-election, an effort Chen said Tsai is bound to undertake.
Photo: CNA
Lai has no plans to stand in Tsai’s way by participating in the next presidential election as Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) claimed, Chen said, adding that no one is entitled to speak for Lai.
“Lai is supposedly a candidate that Tsai is considering” for Presidential Office secretary-general, Chen said, as the position has been vacant since October last year.
Asked how she would evaluate Tsai’s performance, Chen said no government can satisfy the demands of all of its citizens, and Tsai has performed steadily, especially in terms of cross-strait relations and pension reform.
A labor amendment that implemented a five-day workweek with one fixed day off and a flexible rest day was also a progressive move, but complaints have arisen because the government failed to explain the new policy to the public, Chen said, calling on the newly sworn-in Minister of Labor Lin Mei-chu (林美珠) to redouble efforts to communicate with the public.
Denying the rumor that she would be appointed premier, Chen said the central government has never asked her about taking the job.
“Lin’s performance is getting better and better, and there is no issue” of replacement, Chen said.
She said Lin has proven a close and reliable colleague during the time they served as the heads of Taipei City Department of Social Welfare and Department of Finance under the then-Taipei mayor, former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
In response to speculation that Chen Chu was inclined to announce DPP Legislator Liu Shih-fang (劉世芳) as her successor amid an escalating competition between DPP lawmakers for the party’s nomination in the mayoral election next year, she said all DPP members had the same right to seek nomination, and she did not play favorites with the mayor’s executive resources.
“There would be no such thing as a successor. People like us who have been through democratic movements are against the idea of a successor,” Chen Chu said, adding that all DPP members are equally welcome to join the party’s primaries.
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
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