A dispute broke out among Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials yesterday over the appointment of Tseng Chih-hsiang (曾志湘) as director of the party’s Department of Indigenous Affairs, after it was revealed that he had previously held pro-China views and promoted cross-strait political events.
During an interview just before the presidential election in January 2016, Tsai said: “If the pan-blue and pan-green parties do a bad job governing, while the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] has the means to do better, then I welcome the CCP to take charge,” the Chinese-language news site Mirror Media reported.
At the time, Tseng was chief of Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興), a mountain Aboriginal region.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
He assumed office as an independent after then-district chief Fan Cheng-hsing (范振興) was removed upon being convicted of vote-buying in 2015.
Tseng, an Atayal, was a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), but ran in the local elections in 2014 as an independent.
According to Mirror Media, in late 2016, Tseng in a separate interview with the China News Review agency in Hong Kong, which is reportedly funded by Beijing, said that the government’s New Southbound Policy is no help to the nation’s Aborigines, saying: “It is more pragmatic to go with the ‘two sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family’ policy. We are coordinating Taiwan’s five major Aboriginal regions ... to visit China to promote tourism and agricultural products.”
DPP Chairman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) defended Tseng’s appointment, saying that his previous remarks represented his job and background at the time.
“Now that he has joined our party, it is more important for him to work according to our party’s plans and requirements,” he said.
Cho then showed a photograph of his old KMT membership card, saying: “Even I was a KMT member in the past. There are too many people who once belonged with the KMT... Now we welcome them to become DPP members.”
Tseng reportedly also promoted political events in Taiwan and China, and established good rapport with Chinese officials in charge of propaganda and “united front” activities targeting Taiwanese officials.
Local Chinese-language media reported that Tseng in June 2016 went to Pingtan Island in China’s Fujian Province to participate in a cross-strait political forum, and invited a number of Chinese provincial officials to Aboriginal celebrations in Fuhsing District the following month.
Tseng had good relations with Fang Ming (方明), deputy director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office chapter in Pingtan, who led a Chinese delegation to the celebrations, Mirror Media reported.
Critics said that the DPP is drawing up legal amendments to restrict and introduce more severe punishments for people and businesses working on behalf of the Chinese government.
Tseng could leak the DPP’s internal discussions on national security, election campaign strategy and other sensitive issues, they said.
People within the party have complained about DPP Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia’s (羅文嘉) choice of Tseng, as well as other appointements.
Earlier this month, DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) threatened to resign from the DPP Central Standing Committee in a row with Luo, saying: “The party headquarters is controlled by a small clique that makes job appointments on its own.”
Eight restaurants in Taiwan yesterday secured a one-star rating from the Michelin Guide Taiwan for the first time, while three one-star restaurants from last year’s edition were promoted to two stars. Forty-three restaurants were awarded one star this year, including 34 in Taipei, five in Taichung and four in Kaohsiung. Hosu (好嶼), Chuan Ya (川雅), Sushi Kajin (鮨嘉仁), aMaze (心宴), La Vie by Thomas Buhner, Yuan Yi (元一) and Frassi in Taipei and Front House (方蒔) in Kaohsiung received a one-star rating for the first time. Hosu is known for innovative Taiwanese dishes, while Chuan Ya serves Sichuan cuisine and aMaze specializes
STATS: Taiwan’s average life expectancy of 80.77 years was lower than that of Japan, Singapore and South Korea, but higher than in China, Malaysia and Indonesia Taiwan’s average life expectancy last year increased to 80.77 years, but was still not back to its pre-COVID-19 pandemic peak of 81.32 years in 2020, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. The average life expectancy last year increased the 0.54 years from 2023, the ministry said in a statement. For men and women, the average life expectancy last year was 77.42 years and 84.30 years respectively, up 0.48 years and 0.56 years from the previous year. Taiwan’s average life expectancy peaked at 81.32 years in 2020, as the nation was relatively unaffected by the pandemic that year. The metric
Taiwan High Speed Rail Corp. (THSRC) plans to ease strained capacity during peak hours by introducing new fare rules restricting passengers traveling without reserved seats in 2026, company Chairman Shih Che (史哲) said Wednesday. THSRC needs to tackle its capacity issue because there have been several occasions where passengers holding tickets with reserved seats did not make it onto their train in stations packed with individuals traveling without a reserved seat, Shih told reporters in a joint interview in Taipei. Non-reserved seats allow travelers maximum flexibility, but it has led to issues relating to quality of service and safety concerns, especially during
A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck Chiayi County at 4:37pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 36.3km southeast of Chiayi County Hall at a depth of 10.4km, CWA data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage resulting from the quake. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Chiayi County, Tainan and Kaohsiung on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Pingtung, Taitung, Hualien, Changhua, Nantou and Penghu counties, the data