Former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) son, Chen Chih-chung (陳致中), who was stripped of his position as a Greater Kaohsiung councilor after being found guilty of perjury, yesterday said he remained undecided on whether to run in the legislative elections in January next year.
“I am still listening to the opinions of voters in my constituency and evaluating all possible options,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a fundraising banquet organized by the Taiwan Hakka Society.
“I will not let down those who voted for me,” Chen Chih-chung said.
Chen Chih-chung lost his job as an independent Greater Kaohsiung councilor after the Supreme Court sentenced him to three months in jail last week for perjury in a case related to his father’s state affairs fund case.
Since the verdict, there has been speculation that Chen Chih-chung — or his wife Huang Jui-ching (黃睿靚) — might decide to run in the legislative election in either Greater Tainan, Greater Kaohsiung or Greater Taichung, where Huang grew up.
If that happens, their participation in the legislative race could have an impact on the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which has nominated candidates in those districts.
DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has said that her party is unlikely to recruit Chen Chih-chung, who has withdrawn from the DPP, as a candidate because the nomination process has been completed.
Chen Chih-chung has said he will not run in Greater Tainan’s fifth district, where former Tainan County commissioner Mark Chen (陳唐山) has been nominated as the DPP candidate, but did not elaborate on whether he would run in a different district.
The ultimate goal for the green camp is for the DPP’s candidate to win the presidential election and become the majority party in the legislature, DPP Legislator Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said.
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “[we] appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
ON PAROLE: The 73-year-old suspect has a criminal record of rape committed when he was serving in the military, as well as robbery and theft, police said The Kaohsiung District Court yesterday approved the detention of a 73-year-old man for allegedly murdering three women. The suspect, surnamed Chang (張), was arrested on Wednesday evening in connection with the death of a 71-year-old woman surnamed Chao (趙). The Kaohsiung City Police Department yesterday also unveiled the identities of two other possible victims in the serial killing case, a 75-year-old woman surnamed Huang (黃), the suspect’s sister-in-law, and a 75-year-old woman surnamed Chang (張), who is not related to the suspect. The case came to light when Chao disappeared after taking the suspect back to his residence on Sunday. Police, upon reviewing CCTV
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody