President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and former premier William Lai (賴清德) — who are seeking nomination by the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) as its presidential candidate — separately yesterday appealed to supporters, with party headquarters about to begin public opinion polls for its primary.
The DPP’s Central Executive Committee on Wednesday agreed to change the primary rules that it published on March 14, adopting proposals suggested by Tsai’s camp to have polls comprise 50 percent landline and 50 percent cellphone interviews, pitting Tsai and Lai against independent Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) and Kaohsiung Mayor Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT). The polls are to begin on June 10 and finish by June 14.
At a news conference in Taipei yesterday, Lai said he would safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Society has taught him three important principles: responsibility for the nation, keeping Taiwan and Taiwanese as top priorities and sustaining his ties to Taiwan, Lai said.
If elected president, he would uphold national sovereignty, democracy, freedom, human rights and the rule of law, he said, adding that he would boost economic development and national defense, safeguard the right of Taiwanese to determine the nation’s future, develop peaceful cross-strait relations and bolster Taiwan’s role in maintaining peace in the Asia-Pacific region as well as global collaboration.
Separately, Tsai visited three tourist spots in Changhua County, where supporters held placards welcoming her.
Photo: Chen Kuan-pei, Taipei Times
Over the past three years, she laid foundations for important policies, such as this year’s tax reduction, which helped ease the financial burden of young people and families, and created conditions that saw more than 3,000 Taiwanese businesses move back to the nation, Tsai said.
Despite questions over the policies early on, they formed a solid foundation upon which a stately house can be built, she said.
“However, it is not finished, so supervision cannot change hands,” she said, adding that more time was required to implement policies.
A televised forum is to be held, possibly on Saturday, for Tsai and Lai to discuss their platforms, the DPP said.
DPP Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said that as opinion polls usually take three or four days to complete, the winner of the primary could be known as early as June 13.
There are 77 incidents of Taiwanese travelers going missing in China between January last year and last month, the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) said. More than 40 remain unreachable, SEF Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia (羅文嘉) said on Friday. Most of the reachable people in the more than 30 other incidents were allegedly involved in fraud, while some had disappeared for personal reasons, Luo said. One of these people is Kuo Yu-hsuan (郭宇軒), a 22-year-old Taiwanese man from Kaohsiung who went missing while visiting China in August. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office last month said in a news statement that he was under investigation
An aviation jacket patch showing a Formosan black bear punching Winnie the Pooh has become popular overseas, including at an aviation festival held by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force at the Ashiya Airbase yesterday. The patch was designed last year by Taiwanese designer Hsu Fu-yu (徐福佑), who said that it was inspired by Taiwan’s countermeasures against frequent Chinese military aircraft incursions. The badge shows a Formosan black bear holding a Republic of China flag as it punches Winnie the Pooh — a reference to Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — who is dressed in red and is holding a honey pot with
Celebrations marking Double Ten National Day are to begin in Taipei today before culminating in a fireworks display in Yunlin County on the night of Thursday next week. To start the celebrations, a concert is to be held at the Taipei Dome at 4pm today, featuring a lineup of award-winning singers, including Jody Chiang (江蕙), Samingad (紀曉君) and Huang Fei (黃妃), Taipei tourism bureau official Chueh Yu-ling (闕玉玲) told a news conference yesterday. School choirs, including the Pqwasan na Taoshan Choir and Hngzyang na Matui & Nahuy Children’s Choir, and the Ministry of National Defense Symphony Orchestra, flag presentation unit and choirs,
China is attempting to subsume Taiwanese culture under Chinese culture by promulgating legislation on preserving documents on ties between the Minnan region and Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said yesterday. China on Tuesday enforced the Fujian Province Minnan and Taiwan Document Protection Act to counter Taiwanese cultural independence with historical evidence that would root out misleading claims, Chinese-language media outlet Straits Today reported yesterday. The act is “China’s first ad hoc local regulations in the cultural field that involve Taiwan and is a concrete step toward implementing the integrated development demonstration zone,” Fujian Provincial Archives deputy director Ma Jun-fan (馬俊凡) said. The documents
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