Following a week-long guessing game, independent presidential candidate James Soong (
Speaking at a packed press conference, Soong highly commended Chang for his spirit of caring about Taiwanese society, as well as his medical expertise, outstanding management skills and a macroscopic perspective in scientific circles.
"The question of political party affiliation was the only question I have never asked Chang," Soong said, stressing the non-partisan consultation process for his choice.
PHOTO: CHEN CHENG-CHANG, TAIPEI TIMES
Soong admitted he had already begun to search for an appropriate running-mate sometime between May and June.
"A suitable candidate must match expectations of my political ideas respecting team-work consciousness," Soong said.
Nevertheless, he said, his ideas have had to confront a backlash with reality, due to electoral considerations of winning the presidential race.
"I have had to take regional, party and ethnic background into account," Soong said.
Chang is a specialist in cardiac surgery, a native Kaohsiung City resident and a son-in law of former Tainan City Mayor Hsin Wen-ping (辛?戭? -- who was campaign manager for Lee Teng-hui (
When asked if he could draw on his surgical skills in politics, Chang replied: "I believe that under an environment of teamwork, I can come up to speed quickly. After the presidential voting next March 18, there should be no doubts anymore as to my ability."
Citing the words of Formosa Plastics Group chairman Wang Yung-ching (
Chang said he had personally delivered his decision to Wang Wednesday night. "Wang was apparently astonished by my move -- he kept silent for several moments, and then advised me to be prepared to make sacrifices for the island."
His comments, however, produced stern denials from officials at Formosa Plastics.
FPG general manager Wang Yung-tsai (?y揖牘b), -- Wang Yung-ching's brother -- said yesterday his brother "was very unhappy about Chang's announcement. Our company has never gotten involved in politics, and if Chang is determined to take part in the impending presidential campaign, he has no other alternative but to resign his post at Chang Gung immediately."
Meanwhile, Vice President Lien Chan(
"In democracies, it is normal for a presidential candidate to choose his running-mate -- it is not worth any particular attention," said Lien Chan's spokesman, Ting Yuan-chao (
Critics, meanwhile, said compared with the other two tickets -- the KMT's Lien-Siew pairing and DPP's pairing of Chen Shui-bian (
Julian Kuo (3?翰G), a political strategist from Soochow University, said Chang's academic background and the fact he is a native Taiwanese could offset Soong's weakness in being mainland-born.
"The Soong-Chang ticket has complementary aspects, such as a symbolic balancing between northern and southern Taiwan and more significantly, a middle ground between native Taiwanese and mainland-born Chinese," Kuo said.
"Such a veiled, unstated demonstration of approval by the Wang family over Chang's cooperation with Soong, means that the native Wang family -- who had earlier pledged to support Lien Chan -- has attempted to back both sides of the presidential race; perhaps other conglomerates may follow in Wang's path," Kuo said.
"If that happens, it would have great negative impact on Lien's campaign," said Kuo, referring to the solid conglomerate support Lien now enjoys.
Kuo said there is another trump card in Soong's hand to defend against a possible attack over his mainlander identity.
"If Soong can preserve his popularity at the number one spot in the presidential race sometime around next January, then Soong could possibly declare the current senior advisor to Presidential Office Wu Poh-hsiung (
"In this way, Soong could justifiably claim he has already made a government crossing both partisan and ethnic boundaries."
Taiwan has arranged for about 8 million barrels of crude oil, or about one-third of its monthly needs, to be shipped from the Red Sea this month to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and ease domestic supply pressures, CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) said yesterday. The state-run oil company has worked with Middle Eastern suppliers to secure routes other than the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas typically passes, CPC chairman Fang Jeng-zen (方振仁) said at a meeting of the legislature’s Economics Committee in Taipei. Suppliers in Saudi Arabia have indicated they
South Korea has adjusted its electronic arrival card system to no longer list Taiwan as a part of China, a move that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said would help facilitate exchanges between the two sides. South Korea previously listed “Taiwan” as “Taiwan (China)” in the drop-down menus of its online arrival card system, where people had to fill out where they came from and their next destination. The ministry had requested South Korea make a revision and said it would change South Korea’s name on Taiwan’s online immigration system from “Republic of Korea” to “Korea (South),” should the issue not be
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
Both sides of the Taiwan Strait share a political foundation based on the “1992 consensus” and opposition to Taiwanese independence, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today said during her meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平). Both sides of the Strait should plan and build institutionalized and sustainable mechanisms for dialogue and cooperation based on that foundation to make peaceful development across the Strait irreversible, she said. Peace is a shared moral value across the Strait, and both sides should move beyond political confrontation to seek institutionalized solutions to prevent war, she said. Mutually beneficial cross-strait relations are what the
RSS