Ending weeks of speculation, Taitung County Commissioner Hsu Ching-yuan (
"I am putting politics aside to make Taitung's development my top priority. For these legislative elections, I have decided to support the DPP's candidate for Taitung County in consideration of what is in the best interests of Taitung and for no other reason. [As a result,] I hope that the projects to expand Taitung's Fugang Harbor (富岡港) and widen the Southern Cross-Island Highway (南迴公路) will take place before the eyes of Taitung residents as soon as possible," said Hsu, who was one of the PFP's founding members, yesterday at a press conference.
The central government's support for the two county construction projects have long been cited by Hsu as his condition for helping the DPP in its legislative efforts in Taitung.
"Both of the budgets needed for these two construction projects are too massive for the local government to bear; we need the support of the central government for these projects, both of which will improve Taitung's development for the next 20 to 30 years," Hsu said.
Since his decision to support the DPP's candidate in Taitung County, Hsu Jui-kuei (許瑞貴), goes against the PFP's promise to the KMT to support its two legislative candidates in the area, Hsu announced that he was voluntarily giving up his party membership in the PFP in order not to create difficulties for PFP Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜). He communicated his decision to Soong on Nov. 16, who expressed regret and acceptance, Hsu said. Hsu also said he has no plans to enter the DPP and will instead become an independent.
In response, the PFP released a statement yesterday expressing its regret at Hsu's decision. While reiterating the PFP's long-term support for the "Republic of China," the statement condemned the ruling party for using its "administrative advantages" to "kidnap" the Taitung County commissioner for the DPP's own "selfish election purposes."
While the issue of whether or not the PFP would be forced to take Hsu to task for stumping for its political rival was solved by Hsu's decision to drop out of the party, the controversy has created wide speculation that Miaoli County Commissioner Fu Hsueh-peng (
Fu and Hsu had been previously identified by the media as political figures the pan-green camp was wooing to endorse its candidates in the year-end legislative elections. Both Taitung and Miaoli counties have traditionally been solid bases of pan-blue support.
Replying to Miaoli county councilors in a meeting yesterday, Fu said that he was willing to stump for any party's candidates, so long as that party supported Miaoli County.
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it has lodged a protest with Pretoria after the name of the Taipei Liaison Office in South Africa was changed to the “Taipei Commercial Office” on the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation’s (DIRCO) Web site. In October last year, the South African government asked Taiwan to relocate the Taipei Liaison Office, the nation’s de facto embassy, out of Pretoria. It later agreed to continue negotiating through official channels, but in January asked that the office be relocated by the end of this month. As of the middle of last month, DIRCO’s Web