Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Pasuya Yao (姚文智) yesterday said that he would not withdraw from the party to join the Taipei mayoral race even if the DPP decided not to nominate any candidate for the capital.
During a media interview on Monday, Yao was asked if he would withdraw from the DPP and run as an independent if the party decided not to nominate a candidate in favor of renewing an alliance with Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲).
“It is a possibility,” Yao reportedly said at the time.
However, Yao yesterday said he did not say he would “withdraw from the party,” and that the reports were a media exaggeration.
He said he would spare no effort to seek the DPP’s nomination and that he, as a DPP member, is proud of the party.
“The DPP can no longer work with Ko on ‘Taiwanese values.’ Ko has [failed to address] the issue of Taiwanese sovereignty and public opinions, and he has framed cross-strait relations as a ‘family’ without prior negotiations [with the government], aligning himself with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s (習近平) narrative,” Yao said.
He also accused Ko of banning a journalist from talking with his staff members due to an unfavorable report about the city government’s allegedly questionable practices in organizing this year’s Lantern Festival.
That, coupled with Ko’s requiring city government officials suspected of leaking information about the Taipei Dome to the media to take polygraph tests in 2016, is indicative of Ko’s disrespect for democracy and human rights, Yao said.
Ko does not represent the progressive values he boasts and the DPP should part ways with the independent mayor, Yao said.
In related news, political commentator Yao Li-ming (姚立明), Ko’s chief campaign executive director during the 2014 election, said that whether or not the DPP nominates Pasuya Yao, he was willing to lead his mayoral campaign if he decides to run.
China might accelerate its strategic actions toward Taiwan, the South China Sea and across the first island chain, after the US officially entered a military conflict with Iran, as Beijing would perceive Washington as incapable of fighting a two-front war, a military expert said yesterday. The US’ ongoing conflict with Iran is not merely an act of retaliation or a “delaying tactic,” but a strategic military campaign aimed at dismantling Tehran’s nuclear capabilities and reshaping the regional order in the Middle East, said National Defense University distinguished adjunct lecturer Holmes Liao (廖宏祥), former McDonnell Douglas Aerospace representative in Taiwan. If
ECHOVIRUS 11: The rate of enterovirus infections in northern Taiwan increased last week, with a four-year-old girl developing acute flaccid paralysis, the CDC said Two imported cases of chikungunya fever were reported last week, raising the total this year to 13 cases — the most for the same period in 18 years, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. The two cases were a Taiwanese and a foreign national who both arrived from Indonesia, CDC Epidemic Intelligence Center Deputy Director Lee Chia-lin (李佳琳) said. The 13 cases reported this year are the most for the same period since chikungunya was added to the list of notifiable communicable diseases in October 2007, she said, adding that all the cases this year were imported, including 11 from
Prosecutors in New Taipei City yesterday indicted 31 individuals affiliated with the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) for allegedly forging thousands of signatures in recall campaigns targeting three Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) lawmakers. The indictments stem from investigations launched earlier this year after DPP lawmakers Su Chiao-hui (蘇巧慧) and Lee Kuen-cheng (李坤城) filed criminal complaints accusing campaign organizers of submitting false signatures in recall petitions against them. According to the New Taipei District Prosecutors Office, a total of 2,566 forged recall proposal forms in the initial proposer petition were found during the probe. Among those
The Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant’s license has expired and it cannot simply be restarted, the Executive Yuan said today, ahead of national debates on the nuclear power referendum. The No. 2 reactor at the Ma-anshan Nuclear Power Plant in Pingtung County was disconnected from the nation’s power grid and completely shut down on May 17, the day its license expired. The government would prioritize people’s safety and conduct necessary evaluations and checks if there is a need to extend the service life of the reactor, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference. Lee said that the referendum would read: “Do