Less than a week after People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (
The PFP announced that Soong will lead a PFP/Non-Partisan Solidarity Union think tank, thus leaving him as a political force to be reckoned with.
"Soong is a brave and ambitious man of a particular generation," said Chen Mao-hsiung (
PHOTO: LIAO CHEN-HUEI, TAIPEI TIMES
When former president Chiang Ching-kuo (
The group sought to limit Lee's power, but Soong helped clear the way for Lee's succession to power.
"Soong made the choice because he knew that he had many rivals on the mainlanders' side. Establishing himself as one of the few mainlanders loyal to Lee would make him second only to Lee should Lee succeed," Chen said.
After serving as Lee's secretary-general of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for four years, Soong was appointed by Lee as governor of Taiwan Province, a level of government holding jurisdiction over most of the country except for the special municipalities of Taipei and Kaohsiung, in 1993. He was then elected governor the next year with 56 percent of the vote, or 4.7 million votes.
During his five-year governorship, Soong toured the country extensively and built a reputation as a potential presidential candidate.
"He was a hard-working governor who cared about people, always showing concern for the sufferings of individuals," said Lee Hung-yuan (李鴻源), a deputy commissioner of the Taipei County Government.
"Soong not only kept a close watch on how his staff were doing but also helped us solve problems should we encounter any," he added, having been in charge of the water resource department of the last two years of Soong's governorship.
Director of the department of information of the Taipei County Government Yang Ko-hua (
"Soong had a mobile office -- a vehicle that carried him around. Upon finishing an inspection, he called his government staffers telling them how to deal with the problems he had just learned about as soon as he got back to his vehicle," said Yang, who was then a political reporter.
The image of "a capable person," as Sooong often labeled himself, however, was not enough to get him elected president -- he failed in the 2000 presidential election as an independent candidate and in 2004 when he ran as vice presidential candidate to the KMT's Lien Chan (連戰).
Soong's recent defeat in the Taipei mayoral election, when he received a mere 4.1 percent of the vote, caused him to announce the end of his political career.
Commenting on Soong's fall, Chen Yi-shen (
"When Soong has been competing with KMT [former chairman] Lien Chan in showing off people who has better relationship with China, how could Soong, unacceptable to pan-green supporters and abandoned by pan-blue supporters, get elected?" he said.
Chen Yi-shen said KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) had successfully turned the KMT into pro-unificationist's only choice, a phenomenon that began in the post-Lee [Teng-hui] era of the party.
"Even [Legislative Speaker] Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) needed to declare that he opposed Taiwan's independence when he ran in the election for KMT chairman [last year], proving that it would only get harder for the PFP to attract pan-blue supporters," he said.
But Ger Yeong-kuang (
"For one thing, there was a structural problem in the case of single-seat elections. For another, there was a problem of campaign strategy," he said.
Ger said the KMT and PFP should learn to concentrate on campaign issues concerning public policies so that the pro-unification versus pro-independence debate won't always be the only issue.
INCREASED CAPACITY: The flights on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays would leave Singapore in the morning and Taipei in the afternoon Singapore Airlines is adding four supplementary flights to Taipei per week until May to meet increased tourist and business travel demand, the carrier said on Friday. The addition would raise the number of weekly flights it operates to Taipei to 18, Singapore Airlines Taiwan general manager Timothy Ouyang (歐陽漢源) said. The airline has recorded a steady rise in tourist and business travel to and from Taipei, and aims to provide more flexible travel arrangements for passengers, said Ouyang, who assumed the post in July last year. From now until Saturday next week, four additional flights would depart from Singapore on Monday, Wednesday, Friday
Taiwan’s three major international carriers are increasing booking fees, with EVA Airways having already increased the charge to US$28 per flight segment from US$25, while China Airlines (CAL) and Starlux Airlines are set to follow suit. Booking fees are charged by airlines through a global distribution system (GDS) and passed on to passengers. Carriers that apply the fees include CAL, EVA, Starlux and Tigerair Taiwan. A GDS is a computerized network operated by a company that connects airlines with travel agents and ticketing platforms, allowing reservations to be made and processed in real time. Major players include Amadeus, Sabre and Travelport. EVA Air began
The Ministry of National Defense yesterday reported the return of large-scale Chinese air force activities after their unexplained absence for more than two weeks, which had prompted speculation regarding Beijing’s motives. China usually sends fighter jets, drones and other military aircraft around the nation on a daily basis. Interruptions to such routine are generally caused by bad weather. The Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 26 Chinese military aircraft in the Taiwan Strait over the previous 24 hours. It last reported that many aircraft on Feb. 25, when it spotted 30 aircraft, saying Beijing was carrying out another “joint combat
WATCH FOR HITCHHIKERS: The CDC warned those returning home from Japan to be alert for any contagious diseases that might have come back with them People who have returned from Japan following the World Baseball Classic (WBC) games during the weekend are recommended to watch for symptoms of infectious gastroenteritis, flu and measles for two weeks, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said. Flu viruses remain the most common respiratory pathogen in Taiwan in the past four weeks and the influenza B virus accounted for 55.7 percent of the tested cases, exceeding the percentage of influenza A (H3N2) infections and becoming the local dominant strain, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said at a news conference on Tuesday. There were 82,187 hospital visits for
RSS