Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) returned from a four-day trip to Thailand last night with a number of urgent issues on his agenda.
During his trip, Su was able to avoid answering questions about the party’s position on several contentious issues, including former DPP chairperson Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) proposal for a national affairs conference and a campaign to recall “incompetent” lawmakers.
In a speech delivered to Taiwanese businesspeople on Saturday, Su said that recalling a president is difficult, given that it must be proposed by at least a quarter of the legislature and agreed to by at least two-thirds of lawmakers before passing a national referendum.
However, he did not address the civic movement to remove lawmakers, despite the initiators saying that they would welcome political parties’ support.
The DPP launched a similar campaign to recall President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers earlier this year, but has not taken any substantial steps toward this end.
Critics have cited this lack of progress as proof that the DPP has been marginalized by the rising wave of civic movements sweeping the nation.
Su also did not mention the Tsai initiative during the trip.
In his speech, Su reaffirmed the DPP’s determination and willingness to engage China in talks, but said that such efforts would not become a competition with the KMT to curry favor with Beijing.
“If the DPP competed with the KMT for China’s favor, it would become an expendable party,” he said.
Su led a delegation on the four-day trip, which began on Thursday. Yesterday, he visited to the Bangkok Arts and Cultural Center to explore the Thai cultural creative industry. The trip is his third foreign tour this year, following visits to Japan and Singapore.
During his stay, Su met with many Taiwanese living in Thailand, which the DPP says is home to the largest contingent — 150,000 — of Taiwanese businesspeople in Asia.
The DPP leader also met with local politicians, including former Thai prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who is now the head of the Democrat Party.
According to a DPP press release, Su and Abhisit reaffirmed their commitment to fostering closer bilateral ties and trade, with both agreeing on the importance for economies like Taiwan’s and Thailand’s to be independent and free from the control of more powerful counterparts.
DEEPER REVIEW: After receiving 19 hospital reports of suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health applied for an epidemiological investigation A buffet restaurant in Taipei’s Xinyi District (信義) is to be fined NT$3 million (US$91,233) after it remained opened despite an order to suspend operations following reports that 32 people had been treated for suspected food poisoning, the Taipei Department of Health said yesterday. The health department said it on Tuesday received reports from hospitals of people who had suspected food poisoning symptoms, including nausea, vomiting, stomach pain and diarrhea, after they ate at an INPARADISE (饗饗) branch in Breeze Xinyi on Sunday and Monday. As more than six people who ate at the restaurant sought medical treatment, the department ordered the
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Taiwan’s population last year shrank further and births continued to decline to a yearly low, the Ministry of the Interior announced today. The ministry published the 2024 population demographics statistics, highlighting record lows in births and bringing attention to Taiwan’s aging population. The nation’s population last year stood at 23,400,220, a decrease of 20,222 individuals compared to 2023. Last year, there were 134,856 births, representing a crude birth rate of 5.76 per 1,000 people, a slight decline from 2023’s 135,571 births and 5.81 crude birth rate. This decrease of 715 births resulted in a new record low per the ministry’s data. Since 2016, which saw
SECURITY: To protect the nation’s Internet cables, the navy should use buoys marking waters within 50m of them as a restricted zone, a former navy squadron commander said A Chinese cargo ship repeatedly intruded into Taiwan’s contiguous and sovereign waters for three months before allegedly damaging an undersea Internet cable off Kaohsiung, a Liberty Times (sister paper of the Taipei Times) investigation revealed. Using publicly available information, the Liberty Times was able to reconstruct the Shunxing-39’s movements near Taiwan since Double Ten National Day last year. Taiwanese officials did not respond to the freighter’s intrusions until Friday last week, when the ship, registered in Cameroon and Tanzania, turned off its automatic identification system shortly before damage was inflicted to a key cable linking Taiwan to the rest of
RSS