Former Sunflower movement student leader Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) has accepted an offer from Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) to be officially instated tomorrow as the party’s deputy secretary-general, a source in the party said.
Reports that higher-ups in the Presidential Office opposed the appointment were false, the source said, adding that both President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Presidential Office Secretary-General Chen Chu (陳菊) met with Lin last week and support him taking the position.
The appointment would benefit the ruling party, as Lin has closer ties with the New Power Party than with the DPP, the source said.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
The party hierarchy has three deputy secretary-general positions and Lin would be filling the one vacated by Hsu Chia-ching (徐佳青), although the party Web site still listed Hsu as occupying the role.
Luo contacted Lin soon after becoming secretary-general, but Lin was in England at the time, the source said.
Lin campaigning for Yu Tian (余天) to be elected New Taipei City legislator in the March by-elections surprised the party, the source said.
The appointment was recently finalized and would be announced by Luo and DPP Chairman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰).
Appearing at a DPP fundraiser in Kaohsiung last evening, Lin declined to comment.
New Power Party officials and members said they respected Lin’s decision, but also declined to comment further.
Additional reporting by Wang Jung-hsiang
A year-long renovation of Taipei’s Bangka Park (艋舺公園) began yesterday, as city workers fenced off the site and cleared out belongings left by homeless residents who had been living there. Despite protests from displaced residents, a city official defended the government’s relocation efforts, saying transitional housing has been offered. The renovation of the park in Taipei’s Wanhua District (萬華), near Longshan Temple (龍山寺), began at 9am yesterday, as about 20 homeless people packed their belongings and left after being asked to move by city personnel. Among them was a 90-year-old woman surnamed Wang (王), who last week said that she had no plans
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.
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
‘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