Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Legislator Huang Cheng-che (黃政哲) had his party membership suspended yesterday following his indictment on charges of breach of trust and fraud last Wednesday.
The TSU Central Executive Committee's decision will be referred to the party's Central Review Committee and if the latter approves the decision, Huang's legislative seat will be taken by Lin Chih-chia (
Huang was charged with paying bribes, as well as committing fraud and breach of trust in an investigation into suspected irregularities involved in an engineering project that is part of an access road to a station on the high-speed railway in Tainan County.
Some committee members said that the decision should have been delayed until after the Dec. 9 Taipei and Kaohsiung elections, while others believe Huang is innocent until proven guilty, Lin added.
TSU sources said Huang was allowed to defend himself during the meeting. He claimed his indictment was an "election ploy" and that some statements in the indictment were wrong.
Ho Min-hao (
Meanwhile, Lin stressed that the TSU's candidate for Kaohsiung mayor, Lo Chih-ming (羅志明), was still in the race and would campaign until the last minute.
US climber Alex Honnold is to attempt to scale Taipei 101 without a rope and harness in a live Netflix special on Jan. 24, the streaming platform announced on Wednesday. Accounting for the time difference, the two-hour broadcast of Honnold’s climb, called Skyscraper Live, is to air on Jan. 23 in the US, Netflix said in a statement. Honnold, 40, was the first person ever to free solo climb the 900m El Capitan rock formation in Yosemite National Park — a feat that was recorded and later made into the 2018 documentary film Free Solo. Netflix previewed Skyscraper Live in October, after videos
Starting on Jan. 1, YouBike riders must have insurance to use the service, and a six-month trial of NT$5 coupons under certain conditions would be implemented to balance bike shortages, a joint statement from transportation departments across Taipei, New Taipei City and Taoyuan announced yesterday. The rental bike system operator said that coupons would be offered to riders to rent bikes from full stations, for riders who take out an electric-assisted bike from a full station, and for riders who return a bike to an empty station. All riders with YouBike accounts are automatically eligible for the program, and each membership account
A classified Pentagon-produced, multiyear assessment — the Overmatch brief — highlighted unreported Chinese capabilities to destroy US military assets and identified US supply chain choke points, painting a disturbing picture of waning US military might, a New York Times editorial published on Monday said. US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s comments in November last year that “we lose every time” in Pentagon-conducted war games pitting the US against China further highlighted the uncertainty about the US’ capability to intervene in the event of a Chinese invasion of Taiwan. “It shows the Pentagon’s overreliance on expensive, vulnerable weapons as adversaries field cheap, technologically
NUMBERS IMBALANCE: More than 4 million Taiwanese have visited China this year, while only about half a million Chinese have visited here Beijing has yet to respond to Taiwan’s requests for negotiation over matters related to the recovery of cross-strait tourism, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. Taiwan’s tourism authority issued the statement after Chinese-language daily the China Times reported yesterday that the government’s policy of banning group tours to China does not stop Taiwanese from visiting the country. As of October, more than 4.2 million had traveled to China this year, exceeding last year. Beijing estimated the number of Taiwanese tourists in China could reach 4.5 million this year. By contrast, only 500,000 Chinese tourists are expected in Taiwan, the report said. The report