Running for New Taipei City mayor is not on his to-do list, but supporting the party’s New Taipei City councilor candidates is, New Power Party (NPP) Executive Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) said yesterday.
During a morning interview on Clara Chou’s (周玉蔻) Hit FM radio show, Huang was asked if he was planning to enter the New Taipei City mayoral race in the Nov. 24 nine-in-one elections.
While he would “never say never” to running for mayor, for the moment he was focused on his responsibilities as head of the party, Huang said.
“According to the NPP’s regulations, the party’s chairman and decisionmaking committee must be re-elected after every major election. So regardless of how the elections turn out, the chairman and committee members would all have to step down,” he said.
The NPP has 42 candidates so far, and while it has yet to set detailed objectives for the elections, his personal goal is to ensure that all of its New Taipei City councilor candidates are elected, he said.
“If any of those candidates is not elected, that would be my responsibility,” he added.
Media outlets reported that Huang and NPP Legislator Freddy Lim (林昶佐) in January argued over amendments to the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法).
Asked if he and Lim, who is responsible for the NPP Taipei councilor candidates, are competing to see whose has the most winners, Huang said the rumors were an attempt by outsiders to divide them.
“As a party member, I am responsible for our entire election results,” he said.
The NPP would announce two more New Taipei City councilor candidates in the next two weeks to join the current five, he said.
The New Taipei City Council needs more professional, clear-headed and hardworking members, he said.
“We hope to revitalize the city by working on a wide range of issues, including making houses more affordable, improving public childcare services and traffic. At a number of news conferences, our candidates have already pointed out many problems with the city’s policies and proposed ways to make improvements,” he said.
He also urged two of the mayoral hopefuls — former New Taipei City deputy mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and former premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) of the Democratic Progressive Party — to debate him on the city’s housing policy.
“The city’s housing prices have remained very high, even though there are plenty of empty homes in districts such as Sinjhuang (新莊), Linkou (林口) and Danhai (淡海). This is a very serious problem,” he said. “How are young people with low wages going to have a future?”
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is aware that Beijing’s treatment of Hong Kong has weakened any possible sentiment for a “one country, two systems” arrangement for Taiwan, and has instructed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) politburo member Wang Huning (王滬寧) to develop new ways of defining cross-strait relations, Japanese news magazine Nikkei Asia reported on Thursday. A former professor of international politics at Fu Dan University, Wang is expected to develop a dialogue that could serve as the foundation for cross-strait unification, and Xi plans to use the framework to support a fourth term as president, Nikkei Asia quoted an anonymous source
LUCKY DATE: The man picked the 10th ‘Super Red Envelope’ in a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10 A man who recently broke up with his girlfriend won a NT$1 million (US$32,929) prize in the “NT$20 million Super Red Envelope” lottery after picking a card based on the date of their breakup, Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The man, in his 20s, bought the 10th ticket at a lottery store in Taoyuan’s Jhongli District (中壢), because he broke up with his girlfriend on Jan. 10, the store owner told the lottery company. The “Super Red Envelope” lottery was a limited offering by the company during the Lunar New Year holiday, which ended yesterday. The cards, which cost NT$2,000 each, came with
TOURISM BOOST: The transportation system could help attract more visitors to the area, as the line is to connect multiple cultural sites, a city councilor said Residents in New Taipei City’s Ankeng District (安坑) said the local light rail system might have a positive influence, but raised questions about its practicality. The Ankeng light rail system, which is to commence operations after the Lunar New Year holiday, would cut travel time for commuters from Ankeng to downtown Taipei or New Taipei City by 15 to 20 minutes, the city government said. According to the initial plan, there would be one train every 15 minutes during peak time and additional interval trains would run between the densely populated Ankang Station (安康) and Shisizhang Station (十 四張). To encourage people to
CHAMPION TREES: The team used light detection and ranging imaging to locate the tree, and found that it measured a height of 84.1m and had a girth of 8.5m A team committed to finding the tallest trees in the nation yesterday said that an 84.1m tall Taiwania cryptomerioides tree had been named the tallest tree in Taiwan and East Asia. The Taiwan Champion Trees, a team consisting of researchers from the Council of Agriculture’s Taiwan Forestry Research Institute and National Cheng Kung University (NCKU), in June last year used light detection and ranging (LiDAR) imaging to find the giant tree, numbered 55214, upstream of the Daan River (大安溪). A 20-member expedition team led by Rebecca Hsu (徐嘉君), an assistant researcher at the Taiwan Forestry Research Institute, set out to find the
RSS