The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) has warned its members to observe the party’s disciplinary measures and rules, saying that it would revoke the membership of those who seek to run in the November elections without the party’s nomination.
Article 15 of the party’s disciplinary regulations disallows publicly voicing support for non-DPP candidates; openly criticizing DPP candidates; assuming a position or being listed as a member of the campaign staff of a non-DPP candidate; and performing actions and making remarks that adversely affect the image of the party or its candidates.
The party’s comments came after Chiayi County Deputy Commissioner Jeff Wu (吳芳銘) last week announced that the would leave the DPP and announce his own bid for the county commissioner election.
Any action that contravenes Article 15 would be handled accordingly, the DPP said.
Earlier this month, Taipei Department of Civil Affairs Commissioner Lan Shih-tsung (藍世聰) announced that he would support the re-election bid of Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲), an independent, in spite of the party’s decision to nominate DPP Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) as its candidate for the Taipei election.
An anonymous source in the DPP said that since Ko and the DPP parted ways, the mayor has attempted to create the image that the party was overtly domineering and repressing him.
DPP Secretary-General Hung Yao-fu (洪耀福) said that party members working for the Taipei City Government are “serving the public interest of Taipei residents, and are not considered to be contravening party disciplinary regulations.”
Before Hung’s remarks, the DPP had said it would respect Lan’s decision, but had not made clear whether his actions would be considered a contravention of party policy for a united nationwide electoral campaign.
Asked whether the lack of disciplinary action against Lan would weaken Yao’s call for unity among the pan-green camp in the Taipei mayoral election, DPP headquarters director Chen Cheng-te (陳正德) said it would not.
Based on the turnout for Yao’s campaign rally on Saturday last week, pan-green camp supporters are “very happy” that the DPP has nominated its own candidate, Chen said, adding that the event would harden the determination of DPP supporters.
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) mention of Taiwan’s official name during a meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on Wednesday was likely a deliberate political play, academics said. “As I see it, it was intentional,” National Chengchi University Graduate Institute of East Asian Studies professor Wang Hsin-hsien (王信賢) said of Ma’s initial use of the “Republic of China” (ROC) to refer to the wider concept of “the Chinese nation.” Ma quickly corrected himself, and his office later described his use of the two similar-sounding yet politically distinct terms as “purely a gaffe.” Given Ma was reading from a script, the supposed slipup
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
THE HAWAII FACTOR: While a 1965 opinion said an attack on Hawaii would not trigger Article 5, the text of the treaty suggests the state is covered, the report says NATO could be drawn into a conflict in the Taiwan Strait if Chinese forces attacked the US mainland or Hawaii, a NATO Defense College report published on Monday says. The report, written by James Lee, an assistant research fellow at Academia Sinica’s Institute of European and American Studies, states that under certain conditions a Taiwan contingency could trigger Article 5 of NATO, under which an attack against any member of the alliance is considered an attack against all members, necessitating a response. Article 6 of the North Atlantic Treaty specifies that an armed attack in the territory of any member in Europe,
The bodies of two individuals were recovered and three additional bodies were discovered on the Shakadang Trail (砂卡礑) in Taroko National Park, eight days after the devastating earthquake in Hualien County, search-and-rescue personnel said. The rescuers reported that they retrieved the bodies of a man and a girl, suspected to be the father and daughter from the Yu (游) family, 500m from the entrance of the trail on Wednesday. The rescue team added that despite the discovery of the two bodies on Friday last week, they had been unable to retrieve them until Wednesday due to the heavy equipment needed to lift