A dispute broke out among Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) officials yesterday over the appointment of Tseng Chih-hsiang (曾志湘) as director of the party’s Department of Indigenous Affairs, after it was revealed that he had previously held pro-China views and promoted cross-strait political events.
During an interview just before the presidential election in January 2016, Tsai said: “If the pan-blue and pan-green parties do a bad job governing, while the Chinese Communist Party [CCP] has the means to do better, then I welcome the CCP to take charge,” the Chinese-language news site Mirror Media reported.
At the time, Tseng was chief of Taoyuan’s Fusing District (復興), a mountain Aboriginal region.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
He assumed office as an independent after then-district chief Fan Cheng-hsing (范振興) was removed upon being convicted of vote-buying in 2015.
Tseng, an Atayal, was a member of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), but ran in the local elections in 2014 as an independent.
According to Mirror Media, in late 2016, Tseng in a separate interview with the China News Review agency in Hong Kong, which is reportedly funded by Beijing, said that the government’s New Southbound Policy is no help to the nation’s Aborigines, saying: “It is more pragmatic to go with the ‘two sides of the Taiwan Strait are one family’ policy. We are coordinating Taiwan’s five major Aboriginal regions ... to visit China to promote tourism and agricultural products.”
DPP Chairman Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) defended Tseng’s appointment, saying that his previous remarks represented his job and background at the time.
“Now that he has joined our party, it is more important for him to work according to our party’s plans and requirements,” he said.
Cho then showed a photograph of his old KMT membership card, saying: “Even I was a KMT member in the past. There are too many people who once belonged with the KMT... Now we welcome them to become DPP members.”
Tseng reportedly also promoted political events in Taiwan and China, and established good rapport with Chinese officials in charge of propaganda and “united front” activities targeting Taiwanese officials.
Local Chinese-language media reported that Tseng in June 2016 went to Pingtan Island in China’s Fujian Province to participate in a cross-strait political forum, and invited a number of Chinese provincial officials to Aboriginal celebrations in Fuhsing District the following month.
Tseng had good relations with Fang Ming (方明), deputy director of China’s Taiwan Affairs Office chapter in Pingtan, who led a Chinese delegation to the celebrations, Mirror Media reported.
Critics said that the DPP is drawing up legal amendments to restrict and introduce more severe punishments for people and businesses working on behalf of the Chinese government.
Tseng could leak the DPP’s internal discussions on national security, election campaign strategy and other sensitive issues, they said.
People within the party have complained about DPP Secretary-General Luo Wen-jia’s (羅文嘉) choice of Tseng, as well as other appointements.
Earlier this month, DPP Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇) threatened to resign from the DPP Central Standing Committee in a row with Luo, saying: “The party headquarters is controlled by a small clique that makes job appointments on its own.”
A preclearance service to facilitate entry for people traveling to select airports in Japan would be available from Thursday next week to Feb. 25 at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Taoyuan International Airport Corp (TIAC) said on Tuesday. The service was first made available to Taiwanese travelers throughout the winter vacation of 2024 and during the Lunar New Year holiday. In addition to flights to the Japanese cities of Hakodate, Asahikawa, Akita, Sendai, Niigata, Okayama, Takamatsu, Kumamoto and Kagoshima, the service would be available to travelers to Kobe and Oita. The service can be accessed by passengers of 15 flight routes operated by
GIVE AND TAKE: Blood demand continues to rise each year, while fewer young donors are available due to the nation’s falling birthrate, a doctor said Blood donors can redeem points earned from donations to obtain limited edition Formosan black bear travel mugs, the Kaohsiung Blood Center said yesterday, as it announced a goal of stocking 20,000 units of blood prior to the Lunar New Year. The last month of the lunar year is National Blood Donation Month, when local centers seek to stockpile blood for use during the Lunar New Year holiday. The blood demand in southern Taiwan — including Tainan and Kaohsiung, as well as Chiayi, Pingtung, Penghu and Taitung counties — is about 2,000 units per day, the center said. The donation campaign aims to boost
MORE FALL: An investigation into one of Xi’s key cronies, part of a broader ‘anti-corruption’ drive, indicates that he might have a deep distrust in the military, an expert said China’s latest military purge underscores systemic risks in its shift from collective leadership to sole rule under Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), and could disrupt its chain of command and military capabilities, a national security official said yesterday. If decisionmaking within the Chinese Communist Party has become “irrational” under one-man rule, the Taiwan Strait and the regional situation must be approached with extreme caution, given unforeseen risks, they added. The anonymous official made the remarks as China’s Central Military Commission Vice Chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) and Joint Staff Department Chief of Staff Liu Zhenli (劉振立) were reportedly being investigated for suspected “serious
ENHANCING EFFICIENCY: The apron can accommodate 16 airplanes overnight at Taoyuan airport while work on the third runway continues, the transport minister said A new temporary overnight parking apron at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport is to start operating on Friday next week to boost operational efficiency while the third runway is being constructed, the Ministry of Transportation and Communications said yesterday. The apron — one of the crucial projects in the construction of the third runway — can accommodate 16 aircraft overnight at the nation’s largest international airport, Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told reporters while inspecting the new facility yesterday morning. Aside from providing the airport operator with greater flexibility in aircraft parking during the third runway construction,
RSS