In a statement yesterday, former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) office criticized the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and suggested the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was on the right path for the Presidential Office in 2012.
The statement was written after office secretary Chiang Chih-ming (江志銘) visited Chen at the Taipei Detention Center, just days before the former president is expected to be transferred to Taipei Prison.
Despite some senior DPP politicians describing Saturday’s elections as a defeat, the statement said Chen believed that the KMT suffered an even greater setback, based on the gradual but pronounced decline in votes the KMT received.
Compared with the votes it won in the 2008 presidential elections the KMT has lost more than 2.19 million votes, the statement said, after calculating the number of KMT votes on Saturday and those it received during the last nationwide local elections.
“It should be seen as a warning signal that this KMT government is useless and its China-friendly policies are a failure,” said the statement, which is understood to have been written by Chen’s office based on yesterday morning’s meeting with the former president.
“At the same time, it shows that DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has taken the DPP out of a hole and that her political abilities have received the approval of the people,” it said.
Further praising the party leader, the statement also said that Chen believed former premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) dramatic loss in Taipei City meant that he would likely be passed over as a presidential nominee.
A trend of “Tsai going up and Su heading down,” is becoming more apparent it said.
Speaking after the meeting, -Chiang, who was recently elected as a DPP city councilor under Chen’s “One Side, One Country” alliance, said the former president still believed the DPP needed to reflect on its election theme.
“He thinks that [overall], it was still a loss for the DPP,” Chiang said. “The main reason being that they failed to emphasize our national recognition … and did not oppose the Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement with China.”
The National Immigration Agency (NIA) said yesterday that it will revoke the dependent-based residence permit of a Chinese social media influencer who reportedly “openly advocated for [China’s] unification through military force” with Taiwan. The Chinese national, identified by her surname Liu (劉), will have her residence permit revoked in accordance with Article 14 of the “Measures for the permission of family- based residence, long-term residence and settlement of people from the Mainland Area in the Taiwan Area,” the NIA said in a news release. The agency explained it received reports that Liu made “unifying Taiwan through military force” statements on her online
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake struck off Taitung County at 1:09pm today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 53km northeast of Taitung County Hall at a depth of 12.5km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Taitung County and Hualien County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Nantou County, Chiayi County, Yunlin County, Kaohsiung and Tainan, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of damage following the quake.
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) is to begin his one-year alternative military service tomorrow amid ongoing legal issues, the Ministry of the Interior said yesterday. Wang, who last month was released on bail of NT$150,000 (US$4,561) as he faces charges of allegedly attempting to evade military service and forging documents, has been ordered to report to Taipei Railway Station at 9am tomorrow, the Alternative Military Service Training and Management Center said. The 33-year-old would join about 1,300 other conscripts in the 263rd cohort of general alternative service for training at the Chenggong Ling camp in Taichung, a center official told reporters. Wang would first
MINOR DISRUPTION: The outage affected check-in and security screening, while passport control was done manually and runway operations continued unaffected The main departure hall and other parts of Terminal 2 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport lost power on Tuesday, causing confusion among passengers before electricity was fully restored more than an hour later. The outage, the cause of which is still being investigated, began at about midday and affected parts of Terminal 2, including the check-in gates, the security screening area and some duty-free shops. Parts of the terminal immediately activated backup power sources, while others remained dark until power was restored in some of the affected areas starting at 12:23pm. Power was fully restored at 1:13pm. Taoyuan International Airport Corp said in a
RSS