Supporters of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) gathered outside the party's campaign headquarters in Taipei yesterday afternoon and watched as vote tallies were displayed on television screens.
Some supporters broke down in tears when they saw the disappointing results.
A Taiwanese woman surnamed Lin, who lives in Japan, said she cried when she realized that the DPP was going to lose the election.
PHOTO: HSIEH FUNG-CHIU, TAIPEI TIMES
"I am really upset," she said. "People in Taiwan seem to only care about short-term interests and some are willing to sell themselves for that."
Lin said she was concerned about Taiwan's future, and especially the plight of the middle and working class.
CHINA THREAT
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
"Once [the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT)] is in power, it will allow Chinese laborers to come and take all the jobs," she said.
Twenty-one-year-old Miss Huang and 28-year-old Miss Tsai, both volunteer DPP campaign workers, were in tears. Given the result of the 2004 election, they said they had not expected the margin of defeat to be so great.
Huang said that voters did not understand the serious consequences of a single party controlling both the presidential office and the legislature. She said she was concerned that the nation could return to something like the White Terror era.
Tsai said she did not want Taiwan to become a second Tibet.
Devin Huang (黃東漢), a college student from Taoyuan, said the DPP had fought bravely with limited resources against a strong rival.
He also said that a majority of the voters did not dislike the DPP, but were using the election as an opportunity to express their dissatisfaction with President Chen Shui-bian (
ECONOMY
Regarding his expectations for president-elect Ma Ying-jeou (
He added that it was unfair that some overseas Taiwanese got to fly in to vote and leave the next day. Devin Huang said the electoral system should be overhauled.
A 65-year-old retired man surnamed Shih said he did not feel particularly sad about the result of the election, although he had only expected the KMT to win by a margin of between 3 and 5 percentage points.
"They [the KMT] surely have plenty of money to buy votes," he said.
Shih also said that neither of the presidential candidates could solve the China problem, adding that a resolution depended on China itself.
Hong Kong-based American singer-songwriter Khalil Fong (方大同) has passed away at the age of 41, Fong’s record label confirmed yesterday. “With unwavering optimism in the face of a relentless illness for five years, Khalil Fong gently and gracefully bid farewell to this world on the morning of February 21, 2025, stepping into the next realm of existence to carry forward his purpose and dreams,” Fu Music wrote on the company’s official Facebook page. “The music and graphic novels he gifted to the world remain an eternal testament to his luminous spirit, a timeless treasure for generations to come,” it said. Although Fong’s
China’s military buildup in the southern portion of the first island chain poses a serious threat to Taiwan’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) supply, a defense analyst warned. Writing in a bulletin on the National Defense and Security Research’s Web site on Thursday, Huang Tsung-ting (黃宗鼎) said that China might choke off Taiwan’s energy supply without it. Beginning last year, China entrenched its position in the southern region of the first island chain, often with Russia’s active support, he said. In May of the same year, a Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) force consisting of a Type 054A destroyer, Type 055 destroyer,
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was questioned by prosecutors for allegedly orchestrating an attack on a taxi driver after he was allegedly driven on a longer than necessary route in a car he disliked. The questioning at the New Taipei City District Prosecutors’ Office was ongoing as of press time last night. Police have recommended charges of attempted murder. The legally embattled actor — known for his role in the coming-of-age film Our Times (我的少女時代) — is under a separate investigation for allegedly using fake medical documents to evade mandatory military service. According to local media reports, police said Wang earlier last year ordered a
Taiwan is planning to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI)-based X-ray imaging to customs clearance points over the next four years to curb the smuggling of contraband, a Customs Administration official said. The official on condition of anonymity said the plan would cover meat products, e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products, large bundles of banknotes and certain agricultural produce. Taiwan began using AI image recognition systems in July 2021. This year, generative AI — a subset of AI which uses generative models to produce data — would be used to train AI models to produce realistic X-ray images of contraband, the official
RSS