Taiwan Solidarity Union (TSU) Secretary-General Lin Chih-chia (林志嘉) confirmed yesterday that he is mulling running in the New Taipei City (新北市) mayoral election next year and said he hopes that a public opinion poll on TSU and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) aspirant mayoral candidates will be held to determine who will be the best candidate for the pan-green camp.
A TSU meeting on the seven-in-one elections next year accepted Lin’s proposal and asked TSU Chairman Huang Kun-huei (黃昆輝) to meet with DPP Chairman Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) to discuss the matter.
However, DPP spokesperson Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) said the party has its own primary regulations and mechanisms and would not comment on the TSU’s proposal.
The DPP currently has two aspirant candidates — former premier Yu Shyi-kun and former lawmaker Chuang Shuo-han (莊碩漢) — in the party primary after New Taipei Chapter Director Lo Chih-cheng (羅致政) pulled out of the race on Tuesday.
Lin said he is scheduled to announce his intention to run in the election tomorrow and hopes that he will be included in the DPP’s scheduled public opinion poll to determine its candidate in New Taipei City on Dec. 2.
If Lin fails to finish first in the survey, he will drop out of the race and do his best to garner support for the winner so that the pro-Taiwan alliance will have its best shot at winning the constituency of 3 million voters, according to Huang.
Responding to a media inquiry yesterday, former president Lee Teng-hui (李登輝) voiced his support for Lin, saying that Lin will be “a good young candidate who deserves an opportunity [to run in the election].”
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
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If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
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