A coalition of pro-Taiwan independence groups on Thursday urged President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) not to run for president in 2020.
Taiwan Forever Association president Jerry Cheng (鄭文龍) said that Tsai has successfully turned the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) into a “Taiwanese Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)” and cut ties with independence supporters, including the Formosa Alliance — which has called for a referendum on formal independence and participation in the UN — and former president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁).
“The DPP that valued freedom and democracy, human rights and the rule of law, and the spirit of ‘Taiwanese values’ is gone,” Cheng said.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
The “deep green” camp, or independence supporters, commands at least 1 million votes, and should Tsai insist on running for re-election “the independence supporters will not vote for you,” he said.
Tsai does not represent the DPP, nor does the DPP represent Tsai, Taiwan Teachers’ Union chairperson Hsiao Hsiao-ling (蕭曉玲) said, saying that Tsai would not dare admit that she made the final call on the controversial appointment of Kuan Chung-ming (管中閔) as National Taiwan University (NTU) president.
“Should the DPP continue its infighting, we will launch our own efforts,” Hsiao said.
Then-minister of education Yeh Jiunn-rong (葉俊榮) on Monday announced that the Ministry of Education had reluctantly approved Kuan’s appointment.
Premier William Lai (賴清德) the following day approved Yeh’s resignation.
The Presidential office has cited President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) as saying that the decision “caught everyone by surprise.”
However, the groups, citing reports that Lai was only informed by text message less than an hour before Yeh’s announcement, said they were not convinced that Yeh would have made the decision without Tsai’s consent.
Kuan was elected in January.
Although the ministry usually rubber stamps university presidents’ appointments, the ministry declined to approve Kuan’s appointment until Monday, citing flaws in the selection process and an undisclosed potential conflict of interest, as Kuan served as an independent director at Taiwan Mobile Co, while company vice chairman Richard Tsai (蔡明興) sat on the 21-member NTU presidential selection committee.
Additional reporting by CNA
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
Taiwan’s two cases of hantavirus so far this year are on par with previous years’ case numbers, and the government is coordinating rat extermination work, so there should not be any outbreaks, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said today in an interview with the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper). An increase in rat sightings in Taipei and New Taipei City has raised concerns about the spread of hantavirus, as rats can carry the disease. In January, a man in his 70s who lived in Taipei’s Daan District (大安) tested positive posthumously for hantavirus, Taiwan’s
RSS