New Power Party (NPP) Chairman Hsu Yung-ming (徐永明) yesterday said he would try to convince attorney Chen Yu-fan (陳雨凡) to stay after she said on Friday that she would quit the party.
Chen wanted to leave the NPP primarily because of a petition launched by party members calling for her expulsion as punishment for withdrawing from next year’s legislative election, but she might have misunderstood the process of such petitions, Hsu told the Chinese-language newspaper Apple Daily.
As the NPP highly values the opinions of its members, it allows members to submit proposals to the disciplinary committee through collecting signatures, he said.
Photo: Liao Chen-huei, Taipei Times
“It is just a proposal,” he said. “It would not necessarily lead to anything.”
Such petitions are part of a democratic process that every new party must go through, Hsu said.
“There is no need to overreact and we would try to convince [Chen] to say,” he added.
Chen on Sept. 27 said at a news conference with the Democratic Progressive Party that she would withdraw from the legislative election in Taipei’s Xinyi and southern Songshan district to pool votes for DPP legislative candidate Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華).
Her decision drew a backlash within the NPP, with party members saying that as a legislative nominee she should have discussed the matter with the party’s nomination panel before making the announcement.
The petition has been formally accepted by the disciplinary committee, although she had not received any notice from the party, Chen said on Friday.
That the NPP would punish her for supporting a DPP candidate in the district shows that “the party is apparently unwilling to fight for the goal of uniting all Taiwanese against Beijing,” she said.
“I find this completely unacceptable and I am utterly disappointed with the NPP,” she said, adding that she has already applied to quit the party.
On Saturday, NPP decisionmaking committee member Hsiao Hsin-cheng (蕭新晟) also announced that he would leave the party.
“I have only heard of members being fired for joining elections without their party’s nomination, but never for withdrawing from elections,” he said.
The NPP has stated its mission is to defend Taiwan’s sovereignty, yet it has been treating the DPP, which shares a similar stance, as its archenemy, he said.
“I find it unacceptable that the NPP is choosing a path that prioritizes its own future over the nation’s future at this critical juncture, ignoring the elephant in the room,” he said.
If he must choose between growing the NPP and protecting Taiwan against China, he would choose the latter without hesitation, he said.
The party has not hesitated to protect Taiwan against China, but doing that does not necessarily involve collaborating with the DPP, NPP spokesman Chen Chih-ming (陳志明) said.
Additional reporting by CNA
An increase in Taiwanese boats using China-made automatic identification systems (AIS) could confuse coast guards patrolling waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast and become a loophole in the national security system, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday. Taiwan ADIZ, a Facebook page created by enthusiasts who monitor Chinese military activities in airspace and waters off Taiwan’s southwest coast, on Saturday identified what seemed to be a Chinese cargo container ship near Penghu County. The Coast Guard Administration went to the location after receiving the tip and found that it was a Taiwanese yacht, which had a Chinese AIS installed. Similar instances had also
GOOD DIPLOMACY: The KMT has maintained close contact with representative offices in Taiwan and had extended an invitation to Russia as well, the KMT said The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) would “appropriately handle” the fallout from an invitation it had extended to Russia’s representative to Taipei to attend its international banquet last month, KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) said yesterday. US and EU representatives in Taiwan boycotted the event, and only later agreed to attend after the KMT rescinded its invitation to the Russian representative. The KMT has maintained long-term close contact with all representative offices and embassies in Taiwan, and had extended the invitation as a practice of good diplomacy, Chu said. “Some EU countries have expressed their opinions of Russia, and the KMT respects that,” he
VIGILANCE: The military is paying close attention to actions that might damage peace and stability in the region, the deputy minister of national defense said The People’s Republic of China (PRC) might consider initiating a hack on Taiwanese networks on May 20, the day of the inauguration ceremony of president-elect William Lai (賴清德), sources familiar with cross-strait issues said. While US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s statement of the US expectation “that all sides will conduct themselves with restraint and prudence in the period ahead” would prevent military actions by China, Beijing could still try to sabotage Taiwan’s inauguration ceremony, the source said. China might gain access to the video screens outside of the Presidential Office Building and display embarrassing messages from Beijing, such as congratulating Lai
Four China Coast Guard ships briefly sailed through prohibited waters near Kinmen County, Taipei said, urging Beijing to stop actions that endanger navigation safety. The Chinese ships entered waters south of Kinmen, 5km from the Chinese city of Xiamen, at about 3:30pm on Monday, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement later the same day. The ships “sailed out of our prohibited and restricted waters” about an hour later, the agency said, urging Beijing to immediately stop “behavior that endangers navigation safety.” Ministry of National Defense spokesman Sun Li-fang (孫立方) yesterday told reporters that Taiwan would boost support to the Coast Guard