Vice President William Lai (賴清德) on Tuesday picked a former chief campaign director for Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) as his own campaign director, saying the choice would help him defeat Ko in the January presidential election.
Lai at a news conference announced the core members of his campaign headquarters, to be led by political commentator Yao Li-ming (姚立明).
A former legislator with the New Party, Yao served as chief campaign director for Ko during his successful 2014 run for Taipei mayor.
Photo: CNA
He has since rescinded his support for the TPP founder, and in 2018 backed a Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) candidate for Taipei mayor.
Lai praised Yao as someone who does not care about party affiliation, only right and wrong.
Yao said he helped Ko in 2014, but broke off contact after getting to know his “true nature.”
“We got together over a misunderstanding and broke up after gaining an understanding,” he said.
However, Yao said he has known Lai for years and fully trusts the DPP candidate.
“I deeply believe that as leader, [Lai] will be able to win the trust of the voters,” he said. “In this way, our partnership is entirely different from my one with Ko Wen-je.”
Asked separately about the pick, Ko said it proves Yao’s skill, as he has been courted by different candidates.
He also said he suspects Lai had political motivations to pick Yao as his campaign director.
Kenting National Park service technician Yang Jien-fon (楊政峰) won a silver award in World Grand Prix Photography Awards Spring Season for his photograph of two male rat snakes intertwined in combat. Yang’s colleagues at Kenting National Park said he is a master of nature photography who has been held back by his job in civil service. The awards accept entries in all four seasons across six categories: architectural and urban photography, black-and-white and fine art photography, commercial and fashion photography, documentary and people photography, nature and experimental photography, and mobile photography. Awards are ranked according to scores and divided into platinum, gold and
More than half of the bamboo vipers captured in Tainan in the past few years were found in the city’s Sinhua District (新化), while other districts had smaller catches or none at all. Every year, Tainan captures about 6,000 snakes which have made their way into people’s homes. Of the six major venomous snakes in Taiwan, the cobra, the many-banded krait, the brown-spotted pit viper and the bamboo viper are the most frequently captured. The high concentration of bamboo vipers captured in Sinhua District is puzzling. Tainan Agriculture Bureau Forestry and Nature Conservation Division head Chu Chien-ming (朱健明) earlier this week said that the
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) caucus yesterday said it opposes the introduction of migrant workers from India until a mechanism is in place to prevent workers from absconding. Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) on Thursday told the Legislative Yuan that the first group of migrant workers from India could be introduced as early as this year, as part of a government program. The caucus’ opposition to the policy is based on the assessment that “the risk is too high,” KMT caucus secretary-general Lin Pei-hsiang (林沛祥) said. Taiwan has a serious and long-standing problem of migrant workers absconding from their contracts, indicating that
SPACE VETERAN: Kjell N. Lindgren, who helps lead NASA’s human spaceflight missions, has been on two expeditions on the ISS and has spent 311 days in space Taiwan-born US astronaut Kjell N. Lindgren is to visit Taiwan to promote technological partnerships through one of the programs organized by the US for its 250th national anniversary. Lindgren would be in Taiwan from Tuesday to Saturday next week as part of the US Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs’ US Speaker Program, organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) said in a statement yesterday. Lindgren plans to engage with key leaders across the nation “to advance cutting-edge technological partnerships and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers,”
RSS