Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday said that the government should not make him change the name of the political party he plans to form if it is not illegal.
He made the remark on the sidelines of a visit to Miaoli County when asked about the Ministry of the Interior having received complaints about the Chinese name of Ko’s new party.
Local media reported on Wednesday night that documents submitted by Ko to the ministry showed that he was planning to form a new political party on Tuesday next week. The party’s Chinese-language name (台灣民眾黨) roughly translates to “Taiwan people’s party.”
Photo: Peng Chien-li, Taipei Times
Ko confirmed the plan at a news conference on Thursday morning.
Ko’s new party shares the same Chinese name as a party founded in 1927 by physician and social activist Chiang Wei-shui (蔣渭水), who Ko has on several occasions said is someone he looks up to.
Ko has said he wants to complete Chiang’s unfilled wishes by changing Taiwan’s political culture.
However, Chiang Li-jung (蔣理容), the deputy executive director of the Chiang Wei-shui Cultural Foundation and Chiang Wei-shui’s grandniece, wrote on Facebook that although everyone has the freedom to form a party in a democracy, she thinks Ko, who was a physician like her granduncle, might be using his name as a disguise for other purposes.
She urged people to examine Ko’s values and whether he really embodies the spirit of her granduncle, saying that he did not pander to or succumb to the authorities during the Japanese colonial era.
“Taiwan is the Taiwanese people’s Taiwan,” she wrote, adding that it was a remark her granduncle had often made, in addition to his famous quote: “Citizens must be united, as unity brings strength.”
She hopes anyone who claims to be his successor bears that in mind, Chiang Li-jung said.
The foundation also issued a statement asking Ko to reconsider the name of his party.
Ko yesterday said that the Democratic Progressive Party faced obstruction from the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) when it was formed more than 30 years ago, and after the three decades it took to achieve democracy, his new party should not be boycotted.
“As long as it is not illegal, they should not use any other reasons to block it,” he said.
Separately yesterday, Minister of the Interior Hsu Kuo-yung (徐國勇) said that people have the freedom to form political parties, and his ministry would follow the law when reviewing Ko’s application.
Additional reporting by Huang Hsin-po
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS