Several Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Taipei city councilors yesterday urged the party to nominate its own mayoral candidate, at a meeting with the party’s Central Election Commission to collect opinions on the Taipei mayoral election in November.
Speculation has mounted on whether the DPP would field its own candidate or opt to collaborate with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) again.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Ho Chih-wei (何志偉) compared Ko to a recent food fad, “dirty bread” — bread covered with chocolate dust and filled with cream or custard — saying that eating the bread has made the DPP dirty, but now the fad is over, the party has to rely on itself.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
DPP Taipei City Councilor Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) said that the time to cooperate with Ko, an independent, is over and many DPP supporters are urging the party to field its own candidate, and the party should respect their feelings.
DPP Taipei City Councilor Wang Wei-chung (王威中) said that many of the participants at the meeting supported the idea of having the party field its own candidate, although some said that they have also heard DPP supporters saying they would vote for the party’s councilor candidates, but support Ko even if the party fields its own mayoral candidate.
Wang said that some attendees suggested that the party nominate either Premier William Lai (賴清德) or Presidential Office Secretary-General and former Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) as its mayoral candidate.
In related news, following Ko’s apology in a radio interview on Wednesday to people who were upset over his remark last year that the “two sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family,” several political figures and critics accused him of trying to score political points.
Ko yesterday said he cannot do anything about the fact that there will always be people upset with what he did, adding that he apologized because he was trying to console people who were upset over his “one family” remark.
Noting that there are more than 370,000 Chinese spouses in Taiwan and that China accounts for a good portion of the nation’s export market, Ko said that efforts to reduce tension or conflict in cross-strait relations are still needed.
ALIGNED THINKING: Taiwan and Japan have a mutual interest in trade, culture and engineering, and can work together for stability, Cho Jung-tai said Taiwan and Japan are two like-minded countries willing to work together to form a “safety barrier” in the Indo-Pacific region, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) yesterday said at the opening ceremony of the 35th Taiwan-Japan Modern Engineering and Technology Symposium in Taipei. Taiwan and Japan are close geographically and closer emotionally, he added. Citing the overflowing of a barrier lake in the Mataian River (馬太鞍溪) in September, Cho said the submersible water level sensors given by Japan during the disaster helped Taiwan monitor the lake’s water levels more accurately. Japan also provided a lot of vaccines early in the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic,
Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁) on Monday announced light shows and themed traffic lights to welcome fans of South Korean pop group Twice to the port city. The group is to play Kaohsiung on Saturday as part of its “This Is For” world tour. It would be the group’s first performance in Taiwan since its debut 10 years ago. The all-female group consists of five South Koreans, three Japanese and Tainan’s Chou Tzu-yu (周子瑜), the first Taiwan-born and raised member of a South Korean girl group. To promote the group’s arrival, the city has been holding a series of events, including a pop-up
TEMPORAL/SPIRITUAL: Beijing’s claim that the next Buddhist leader must come from China is a heavy-handed political maneuver that will fall flat-faced, experts said China’s requirement that the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation to be born in China and approved by Beijing has drawn criticism, with experts at a forum in Taipei yesterday saying that if Beijing were to put forth its own Dalai Lama, the person would not be recognized by the Tibetan Buddhist community. The experts made a remarks at the two-day forum hosted by the Tibet Religious Foundation of His Holiness the Dalai Lama titled: “The Snow Land Forum: Finding Common Ground on Tibet.” China says it has the right to determine the Dalai Lama’s reincarnation, as it claims sovereignty over Tibet since ancient times,
Temperatures in some parts of Taiwan are expected to fall sharply to lows of 15°C later this week as seasonal northeasterly winds strengthen, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said today. It is to be the strongest cold wave to affect northern Taiwan this autumn, while Chiayi County in the southwest and some parts of central Taiwan are likely to also see lower temperatures due to radiational cooling, which occurs under conditions of clear skies, light winds and dry weather, the CWA said. Across Taiwan, temperatures are to fall gradually this week, dropping to 15°C to 16°C in the early hours of Wednesday
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