The nine-in-one local elections in November will be a battle between proponents and opponents of reform, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said at the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) National Congress yesterday.
The annual meeting took place at the Grand Hotel in Taipei and was titled “Promoting Reforms for the Next Generation.”
The meeting focused on the election of new members to the party’s Central Standing and Central Advisory committees, and rallying support for its candidates in the Nov. 24 race, DPP spokesperson Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) said.
Photo: Fang Pin-chao, Taipei Times
Despite challenges, the DPP administration has over the past two years strived to reform the nation’s pension, tax and judicial systems, and amended the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) and the Company Act (公司法) , Tsai, who is also DPP chairperson, said in her opening speech.
The DPP has been promoting democracy for 32 years and people who were initially opposed to democracy are now enjoying its benefits, Tsai said.
The reforms undertaken by the DPP are those the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was afraid to implement while in power, she said, adding that the KMT also missed the opportunities to undertake energy transformation and implement transitional justice.
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
The KMT should not have put excessive emphasis on the Chinese market and neglected Southeast Asia’s potential, Tsai said.
The nation would not give in to Chinese pressure or take reckless steps to alter cross-strait ties, but it would continue to rally more global support, she said.
Tsai also called on DPP members to fight for the year-end elections.
Congress member Hsu Han-sheng (許瀚升) proposed that the DPP launch a new party program based on Tsai’s strategy of “maintaining the status quo” across the Taiwan Strait.
However, Tsai did not support the proposal, saying that it is similar to another one proposed last year and had already been discussed.
Congress member Lee Wen-cheng (李文正) proposed that the nation react to Chinese obstructionism in the form of referring to Taiwan as one of its provinces, which was forwarded to the party’s Central Standing Committee with Tsai’s consent.
At a meeting yesterday morning, local representatives also offered suggestions to Executive Yuan officials regarding how they might curb the circulation of fake news, such as recent false reports about banana and pineapple sales, Cheng said, adding that many reports about air pollution regulations were also fabricated.
The Environmental Protection Administration should indeed improve its public communication channels, but some people intentionally distort its policies to incite social unrest, he said, adding that the DPP would respond to false news more rapidly.
Additional reporting by CNA
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat