Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) yesterday said that he would not withdraw from the party to join the Taipei mayoral race even if the DPP decided not to nominate any candidate for the capital.
During a media interview on Monday, Yao was asked if he would withdraw from the DPP and run as an independent if the party decided not to nominate a candidate in favor of renewing an alliance with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
“It is a possibility,” Yao reportedly said at the time.
However, Yao yesterday said he did not say he would “withdraw from the party,” and that the reports were a media exaggeration.
He said he would spare no effort to seek the DPP’s nomination and that he, as a DPP member, is proud of the party.
“The DPP can no longer work with Ko on ‘Taiwanese values.’ Ko has [failed to address] the issue of Taiwanese sovereignty and public opinions, and he has framed cross-strait relations as a ‘family’ without prior negotiations [with the government], aligning himself with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) narrative,” Yao said.
He also accused Ko of banning a journalist from talking with his staff members due to an unfavorable report about the city government’s allegedly questionable practices in organizing this year’s Lantern Festival.
That, coupled with Ko’s requiring city government officials suspected of leaking information about the Taipei Dome to the media to take polygraph tests in 2016, is indicative of Ko’s disrespect for democracy and human rights, Yao said.
Ko does not represent the progressive values he boasts and the DPP should part ways with the independent mayor, Yao said.
In related news, political commentator Yao Li-ming (姚立明), Ko’s chief campaign executive director during the 2014 election, said that whether or not the DPP nominates Pasuya Yao, he was willing to lead his mayoral campaign if he decides to run.
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS