The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) is likely to announce a reshuffe of its senior party rankings as it moves forward following last month’s disappointing showing in the special municipality elections.
DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday that former DPP Secretary-General Su Jia-chyuan (蘇嘉全) would be returning to party headquarters on Monday after an unsuccessful, though well fought, bid as the DPP candidate for Greater Taichung mayor.
Wu Nai-jen (吳乃仁), who replaced Su as party secretary-general six months ago, vacated the post last week to become chief operating officer of a newly created party think tank aimed at improving cross-strait relations, which Tsai set up last week.
The party will inject about NT$20 million (US$664,000) into the think tank, which will -encourage external policy coordination, cross-strait analysis and “mutual understandings” with China. The think tank will be run as part of the New Frontier Foundation operated by the DPP.
Su is believed to have agreed to return to his former position at the DPP after meeting with Tsai over the weekend. Party officials said Su had initially hoped to remain in Taichung for a longer period to thank supporters after his narrow defeat to Taichung Mayor Jason Hu (胡志強).
Praising his performance, DPP spokesperson Lin Yu-chang (林右昌) said that although Su would continue to “care about the people of Greater Taichung and the region’s development … [he] understands that he has other heavy responsibilities to shoulder.”
Lin is also one of six senior DPP officials who are expected to leave their official posts in the opposition party during the coming weeks as they prepare to launch bids for next year’s legislative elections. Their departure, DPP sources say, would likely lead to an even greater reshuffling of party positions.
The expected departures include both of the party’s other two spokespersons, Tsai Chi-chang (蔡其昌) and Chuang Suo-hang (莊碩漢), Hakka Affairs Director Yiong Cong-ziin (楊長鎮), International Affairs Director Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) and Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤), a special assistant.
Most of the group will be exempt from party regulations that state departing officials have to officially give their notice before the beginning of February — a year before the date that newly elected lawmakers take office. Party sources reveal that the DPP had asked Lin and Yiong to potentially run campaigns in traditionally pan-blue districts.
Cheng Wen-tsang (鄭文燦), a former spokesperson for Tsai Ing-wen’s Sinbei City mayoral campaign, will be one of the replacements for the team of DPP spokesperson.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
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