The New Power Party (NPP) yesterday elected human rights lawyer Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) as its new chairman, with Chiu reaffirming the party’s emphases on promoting national sovereignty, labor rights and same-sex marriage.
Former NPP executive chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), who held the post from 2015, late last month surprised supporters by announcing that he would not run for re-election as chairman.
“As the party has developed a steady foundation, this is an appropriate time for me to cast aside my party duties and shift my focus to promoting reforms important to Taiwan’s future,” Huang said at the time.
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
Chiu, formerly director of the NPP’s Hsinchu chapter, was elected during a meeting of the party’s decisionmaking committee.
Defending Taiwan’s sovereignty, labor rights and marriage equality are the NPP’s most important missions, Chiu told a news conference after the meeting.
When asked by reporters if he would seek support from Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) in next year’s legislative elections, Chiu said that if a political party wants to grow up, it must first win supporters’ trust, rather than asking “big names” to back its candidates.
While the party’s stance on Taiwan’s sovereignty is similar to the Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP), the NPP has different views about last year’s amendments the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) and same-sex marriage, he said.
The party would fight for the right of all couples to get married and receive all protections stipulated in the Civil Code, he said.
After formally taking up the post on March 1, Chiu said he would set up an election strategy committee to review legislative candidates for the nation’s 73 first-past-the-post constituencies, Chiu said.
Huang would continue to play an essential role in the party’s fundraising events and has promised to help scout legislative candidates, Chiu said.
The biggest problem Chiu faces is a lack of funds, he said, adding that he still works as a pro bono lawyer.
He said he hopes that party members could work together at a fundraising event on March 9.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
TO BE APPEALED: The environment ministry said coal reduction goals had to be reached within two months, which was against the principle of legitimate expectation The Taipei High Administrative Court on Thursday ruled in favor of the Taichung Environmental Protection Bureau in its administrative litigation against the Ministry of Environment for the rescission of a NT$18 million fine (US$609,570) imposed by the bureau on the Taichung Power Plant in 2019 for alleged excess coal power generation. The bureau in November 2019 revised what it said was a “slip of the pen” in the text of the operating permit granted to the plant — which is run by Taiwan Power Co (Taipower) — in October 2017. The permit originally read: “reduce coal use by 40 percent from Jan.
‘SPEY’ REACTION: Beijing said its Eastern Theater Command ‘organized troops to monitor and guard the entire process’ of a Taiwan Strait transit China sent 74 warplanes toward Taiwan between late Thursday and early yesterday, 61 of which crossed the median line in the Taiwan Strait. It was not clear why so many planes were scrambled, said the Ministry of National Defense, which tabulated the flights. The aircraft were sent in two separate tranches, the ministry said. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday “confirmed and welcomed” a transit by the British Royal Navy’s HMS Spey, a River-class offshore patrol vessel, through the Taiwan Strait a day earlier. The ship’s transit “once again [reaffirmed the Strait’s] status as international waters,” the foreign ministry said. “Such transits by
Taiwan is doing everything it can to prevent a military conflict with China, including building up asymmetric defense capabilities and fortifying public resilience, Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) said in a recent interview. “Everything we are doing is to prevent a conflict from happening, whether it is 2027 or before that or beyond that,” Hsiao told American podcaster Shawn Ryan of the Shawn Ryan Show. She was referring to a timeline cited by several US military and intelligence officials, who said Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) had instructed the Chinese People’s Liberation Army to be ready to take military action against Taiwan