Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) yesterday encouraged People First Party (PFP) Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜) to “stride fearlessly forward” in his presidential bid, but declined to say if he would support Soong.
Ko was in the morning asked to comment on Soong’s widely expected bid, which Soong announced later in the day.
Ko said that he had been discussing with his aides about what pleasantries to put on flowers he would send to Soong’s news conference, finally deciding on the Chinese idiom “stride fearlessly forward” (勇往直前).
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
The latest issue of Chinese-language Want Weekly magazine, published yesterday, cited an anonymous source as saying that Soong had wanted to cooperate with Ko in next year’s legislative elections and even considered nominating him to run for president, but the plans were abandoned after Ko formed the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) in August.
While Ko has said that forming the TPP was a spur-of-the-moment decision, the source said that Ko had been planning it for about four months and had secretly “poached” the PFP’s talent, such as asking then-PFP Taipei City Councilor Vivian Huang (黃珊珊) to become a Taipei deputy mayor and former PFP Taipei city councilor Lin Kuo-cheng’s (林國成) daughter Lin Chen-yu (林珍羽) to become TPP spokeswoman.
According to the source, many of Ko’s fan clubs in southern Taiwan were established by PFP members, so some PFP members think that Ko had been intentionally “deceiving” the party, the magazine said, adding that Soong’s decision to run for president again is aimed at preventing the PFP legislative caucus from unraveling.
Ko, who is also TPP chairman, said that Soong’s presidential bid would likely affect the TPP’s number of legislator-at-large seats.
However, if everyone does what they do best, it would be in the nation’s best interest, Ko said, adding that while the TPP would do its best in the final 60 days before the election, he would still give his blessing to Soong.
Ko cited Soong as telling him that rather than let the two largest parties bicker, his participation in the presidential election would allow him to have a say in more important issues.
However, asked if he would support Soong, with whom he used to have a good relationship, in the presidential election, Ko said that he would send his blessings to Soong.
The presidential election is conducted by secret ballot, he said, brushing off the question.
An alleged US government plan to encourage Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to form a joint venture with Intel to boost US chipmaking would place the Taiwanese foundry giant in a more disadvantageous position than proposed tariffs on imported chips, a semiconductor expert said yesterday. If TSMC forms a joint venture with its US rival, it faces the risk of technology outflow, said Liu Pei-chen (劉佩真), a researcher at the Taiwan Industry Economics Database of the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research. A report by international financial services firm Baird said that Asia semiconductor supply chain talks suggest that the US government would
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT
Starlux Airlines on Tuesday announced it is to launch new direct flights from Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport to Ontario, California, on June 2. The carrier said it plans to deploy the new-generation Airbus A350 on the Taipei-Ontario route. The Airbus A350 features a total of 306 seats, including four in first class, 26 in business class, 36 in premium economy and 240 in economy. According to Starlux’s initial schedule, four flights would run between Taoyuan and Ontario per week: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Flights are to depart from Taoyuan at 8:05pm and arrive in California at 5:05pm (local time), while return flights
Nearly 800 Indian tourists are to arrive this week on an incentive tour organized by Indian company Asian Painted Ltd, making it the largest tour group from the South Asian nation to visit since the COVID-19 pandemic. The travelers are scheduled to arrive in six batches from Sunday to Feb. 25 for five-day tours, the Tourism Administration said yesterday. The tour would take the travelers, most of whom are visiting Taiwan for the first time, to several tourist sites in Taipei and Yilan County, including tea houses in Taipei’s Maokong (貓空), Dadaocheng (大稻埕) and Ximending (西門町) areas. They would also visit