Former New Power Party (NPP) legislator Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) on Thursday announced that he had filed the necessary documents to join the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), which is set to nominate him as a legislator-at-large candidate.
Huang announced his decision in a letter to his colleagues at the Taiwan Anti-corruption and Whistleblower Protection Association, which he cofounded, saying he identifies with Ko’s vision of forming Taiwan’s first coalition government.
Huang and TPP Chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) appeared on Thursday night on a livestreamed program hosted by influencer Holger Chen (陳之漢), during which Ko said he would like to recruit Huang and put him on the TPP’s list of legislator-at-large nominees, to be unveiled tomorrow.
Photo: Taipei Times
Ko said he stumped for Huang when he was campaigning for a legislative seat in New Taipei City’s Sijhih District (汐止) in 2016.
“He’s the man,” Ko said, praising Huang’s ability to discover corruption in his former capacity as a legislator.
Huang said during the show that he supported the idea of a coalition government as he is against the over-concentration of political power, which he said has been a hallmark of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration over the past seven years.
He said after the student-led Sunflower movement against the Cross-Strait Service Trade Agreement in 2014 turned into a brutal crackdown on protesters, DPP politicians promised to work to abolish the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法) and push through a cross-strait agreement supervisory act, promises that have still not been realized.
“Any administration, DPP or Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), needs effective checks and balances, without which there will be an over-concentration of power, which is what we are witnessing now,” Huang said.
Earlier in the day, the New Power Party, which Huang cofounded, said in a statement that it had received Huang’s application to renounce his membership.
Fellow Sunflower movement leader Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) on Facebook yesterday said he was not surprised by Huang’s decision, “but more than that, I am sad for him.”
“Of course, it is equally inconceivable to me that he would stand with the KMT and TPP in advocating the reopening of the service trade agreement” or supporting the so-called “1992 consensus,” said Lin, who until recently was the DPP deputy secretary-general.
Ko earlier this year proposed restarting talks on the service trade agreement, despite also participating in Sunflower movement protests at the time.
“Protecting Taiwan from Chinese annexation is the reason we came together,” Lin said. “Ten years later, defending Taiwan is still the most important thing.”
Additional reporting by Kayleigh Madjar
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
Quarantine awareness posters at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport have gone viral for their use of wordplay. Issued by the airport branch of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Agency, the posters feature sniffer dogs making a range of facial expressions, paired with advisory messages built around homophones. “We update the messages for holidays and campaign needs, periodically refreshing materials to attract people’s attention,” quarantine officials said. “The aim is to use the dogs’ appeal to draw focus to quarantine regulations.” A Japanese traveler visiting Taiwan has posted a photo on X of a poster showing a quarantine dog with a
RSS