Groups within the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are expected to vie for high-level positions at the party’s national congress today in Taipei, while leading party figures are to stump for its Kaohsiung mayoral candidate Chen Chi-mai (陳其邁).
President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文), as party chairwoman, is to oversee the event, which has chosen “Unite for Taiwan, Go Forward in the World” as its theme.
On the agenda is the election of the party’s core power structure, which consists of the decisionmaking bodies of the Central Executive Committee and Central Standing Committee.
Photo: Su Fun-her, Taipei Times
The party’s charter stipulates that the congress must elect 30 members for the executive committee, from which party members would choose 10 to make up the standing committee.
The party in 2006 resolved to dissolve its factions in a move to bolster party unity, although the groupings are still recognized by many inside and outside the DPP.
High-ranking party insiders said former New Tide faction members would likely pick up three seats for the standing committee, represented by Taipei City councilors Hsu Shu-hua (許淑華) and Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) and Legislator Lee Kun-tse (李昆澤) from Kaohsiung.
Two seats are expected to go to the Taiwan Normal Country Promotion Association, which has aligned with “Ing’s Clique” — a group of party members close to Tsai — with the former to nominate Central Standing Committee member Chen Mao-sung (陳茂松) and Legislator Chen Ting-fei (陳亭妃), while Ing’s Clique would nominate former national policy adviser Huang Cheng-kuo (黃承國) and Legislator Su Chen-ching (蘇震清), party insiders said.
Also for the Central Standing Committee, Premier Su Tseng-chang’s (蘇貞昌) supporters are expected to take one seat, likely for Legislator Wu Ping-jui (吳秉叡), while one seat could go to media mogul Lin Kun-hai’s (林崑海) group, which is pushing for Legislator Wang Ting-yu (王定宇), the sources said.
Lin’s group would reportedly also contest the final seat against the “Green Friendship Coalition,” who are expected to nominate Legislator Mark Ho (何志偉), while Lin’s supporters would likely counter with Taiyen Biotech chairman Chen Chi-yu (陳啟昱), the sources said.
Another position of contention is chairperson of the DPP Central Review Committee, with Legislator Chen Ming-wen (陳明文) reportedly favored by Ing’s Clique while others are reportedly aligned to Kaohsiung City Councilor Kang Yu-cheng (康裕成), they added.
An essay competition jointly organized by a local writing society and a publisher affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) might have contravened the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) said on Thursday. “In this case, the partner organization is clearly an agency under the CCP’s Fujian Provincial Committee,” MAC Deputy Minister and spokesperson Liang Wen-chieh (梁文傑) said at a news briefing in Taipei. “It also involves bringing Taiwanese students to China with all-expenses-paid arrangements to attend award ceremonies and camps,” Liang said. Those two “characteristics” are typically sufficient
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was
The Central Weather Administration has issued a heat alert for southeastern Taiwan, warning of temperatures as high as 36°C today, while alerting some coastal areas of strong winds later in the day. Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門) and Pingtung County’s Neipu Township (內埔) are under an orange heat alert, which warns of temperatures as high as 36°C for three consecutive days, the CWA said, citing southwest winds. The heat would also extend to Tainan’s Nansi (楠西) and Yujing (玉井) districts, as well as Pingtung’s Gaoshu (高樹), Yanpu (鹽埔) and Majia (瑪家) townships, it said, forecasting highs of up to 36°C in those areas
RSS