Newly re-elected Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Saturday said that his upcoming departure from the Taipei mayoral office would allow the TPP to fully focus on cultivating talent ahead of the 2024 elections.
Hours after his re-election, Ko wrote on social media that his top priority during his second term as TPP chairman would be improving the party’s organizational structure.
This would include implementing an open and fair selection, promotion and assessment system for leadership and grassroots positions, Ko said.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
Splitting his time between the TPP and his duties as mayor in the three years since the party’s founding had led to internal disputes, Ko said, vowing to devote himself to the development of the party.
Ko lauded the TPP’s strong showing in the local elections last month, in which the party’s candidates won the mayoral vote in Hsinchu, as well as 14 city and county councilor races.
Adressing TPP members, Ko said that as a minor political party, the TPP must position itself to “serve the people” by being innovative, serious and responsible.
Observers have said that while the TPP would seek to win additional legislative seats in 2024, its main objective would be winning the presidential election, with Ko being its likely candidate.
Among those who were on Saturday elected to leadership positions within the party were Taipei Department of Information and Tourism Commissioner Liu Yi-ting (劉奕霆); Ko’s sister, Ko Mei-lan (柯美蘭); former TPP spokesman Jimmy Chang (張清俊); and Shih Shu-ting (施淑婷), a candidate of the party for Hsinchu City councilor in last month’s elections.
Ko Wen-je’s first challenge after he starts his second term on Jan. 1 would be to help the TPP regroup and identify strong candidates for legislative elections, party sources said.
With Ko Wen-je expected to gain total control over the TPP’s Central Committee, the candidates fielded by the party could “make or break” Ko Wen-je, who would have to shoulder the ultimate responsibility if the party underperforms in the 2024 elections, they said.
While the pan-green and pan-blue camps believe that Ko Wen-je is likely to run for president, they believe that he is unlikely to win, the sources said.
Ko Wen-je should seek to create a “third force” by teaming up with Hon Hai Precision Industry Co founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) or former New Power Party lawmaker Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌), they said.
China’s Office of the Commissioner of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Hong Kong has asked foreign consulates in Hong Kong to submit details of their local staff, which is more proof that the “one country, two systems” model no longer exists, a Taiwanese academic said. The office sent letters dated Monday last week to consulates in the territory, giving them one month to submit the information it requires. The move followed Beijing’s attempt to obtain floor plans for all properties used by foreign missions in Hong Kong last year, which raised concerns among diplomats that the information could be used for
‘ABNORMITY’: News of the military exercises on the coast of the Chinese province facing Taiwan were made public by the Ministry of National Defense on Thursday Taiwan’s military yesterday said it has detected the Chinese military initiating a round of exercises at a bay area in coastal Fujian Province, which faces Taiwan, since early yesterday morning and it has been closely monitoring the drills. The exercises being conducted at Fujian’s Dacheng Bay featured an undisclosed number of People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) warplanes, warships and ground troops, the Ministry of National Defense said in a press statement. The ministry did not disclose what kind of military exercises are being conducted there and for how long they would be happening, but it did say that it has been closely watching
Recent movements by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) have been “highly unusual,” but the military maintains a grasp of the situation, Minister of National Defense Chiu Kuo-cheng (邱國正) said on Friday, after the military for the first time said it was monitoring troop movements in China’s Dacheng Bay (大埕灣). The minister gave the remarks to reporters before appearing at the legislature on the first day of its new session. The Ministry of National Defense on Thursday evening released an air force surveillance photograph of a PLA Shaanxi Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, and said it was monitoring the PLA Rocket Force and ground
Noting that researchers have found that 85 China-based blogs and accounts were spreading a conspiracy theory that a US “meteorological weapon” had caused recent fires in Hawaii, political observers in Taiwan said the nation also needs to be vigilant of Beijing employing similar disinformation campaigns against Taiwan. The untrue content concerning Hawaii was written in 15 languages and disseminated across a myriad of platforms including Facebook, YouTube and X, a report published in Gizmodo said, citing NewsGuard, an online news content ranker. The effort represented the most expansive Chinese informational operation to be uncovered by NewsGuard to date, Gizmodo said. The conspiracy theory