In the face of strong opposition from the party's local factions, the ruling DPP's Central Executive Committee yesterday agreed to call upon independent legislator Hsu Tain-tsair (
The decision, however, was immediately and strongly opposed by party members from the Tainan Division, who staged a protest at the DPP's Taipei headquarters.
PHOTO: LEE HUNG-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
The demonstrators threw eggs, waved banners and burst into the headquarters where they vented their anger, yelling, "We strongly oppose the party's decision to call upon Hsu," and, "The party has ignored the voices of local party members."
After learning of the protests against him, Hsu, however, appealed to the people of Tainan to give him a "second chance."
"Don't let resentment, which arose from past elections and the growth of factions, overshadow our cooperation. There is no issue on which we cannot be reconciled since we share the same political mission," Hsu said at a press conference yesterday afternoon, adding, "It's good to be back home."
Hsu, who has recently re-registered as a DPP member, yesterday said that he could sympathize with the protesters' anger, but that he hoped they would give "political idealists" like himself a chance to strive for a better future for the DPP.
Hsu, a former DPP member who left the party in 1995 to run in the legislative elections as an independent legislator, was defeated in Tainan's 1997 mayoral election by the party's candidate, George Chang (張燦鍙). A close friend and former classmate of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), Hsu refused to endorse Chen in last year's presidential election. As a result, many view him as a traitor to the party and he has especially annoyed party members in Tainan.
But Hsu's performance in the legislature has enabled him to regain the party leadership's trust, especially following Chen's hint that the party would nominate any candidates who stood a good chance of winning the election.
Brushing aside protesters' concerns, the party's deputy secretary general Hsu Yang-ming (
He said that DPP Chairman Frank Hsieh (
He added that heads of the party's Tainan headquarters had also been invited to attend the Central Executive Committee meeting to present their views.
"All considerations were taken into account and the decision at the CEC meeting was reached unanimously," Hsu Yang-ming said at a press conference after the meeting.
Hsu Yang-ming added that one of the protesters supported DPP legislator Lai Ching-te (
Incumbent Tainan Mayor Chang, who is in custody on corruption charges, is likely to try to run for a second term. He has argued that to do so would be the only way to clear his name, but he will now have to run as a non-DPP candidate.
The Central Executive Committee yesterday also agreed to ask Lee Chin-yung (李進勇), mayor of Keelung, to seek reelection to his post and national baseball star Chen Yi-hsin (陳義信) to run for a DPP seat as an aboriginal legislator.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
A magnitude 6.4 earthquake and several aftershocks battered southern Taiwan early this morning, causing houses and roads to collapse and leaving dozens injured and 50 people isolated in their village. A total of 26 people were reported injured and sent to hospitals due to the earthquake as of late this morning, according to the latest Ministry of Health and Welfare figures. In Sising Village (西興) of Chiayi County's Dapu Township (大埔), the location of the quake's epicenter, severe damage was seen and roads entering the village were blocked, isolating about 50 villagers. Another eight people who were originally trapped inside buildings in Tainan
‘ARMED GROUP’: Two defendants used Chinese funds to form the ‘Republic of China Taiwan Military Government,’ posing a threat to national security, prosecutors said A retired lieutenant general has been charged after using funds from China to recruit military personnel for an “armed” group that would assist invading Chinese forces, prosecutors said yesterday. The retired officer, Kao An-kuo (高安國), was among six people indicted for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法), the High Prosecutors’ Office said in a statement. The group visited China multiple times, separately and together, from 2018 to last year, where they met Chinese military intelligence personnel for instructions and funding “to initiate and develop organizations for China,” prosecutors said. Their actions posed a “serious threat” to “national security and social stability,” the statement
RSS