Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) yesterday congratulated former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) on her election as KMT chairwoman, saying he had already begun discussing opportunities for deeper cooperation between the opposition parties.
Cheng on Saturday defeated five other candidates, including her main competitor, two-time Taipei mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌). She is set to begin her four year term on Saturday next week, when she succeeds Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫).
Speaking to reporters at an event in New Taipei City, Huang said he had called Cheng and the other KMT contenders after the election results were announced, and had wished her luck in her new role.
Photo: Yu Chao-fu, Taipei Times
“As far as the TPP is concerned, [Taiwanese] society has been torn apart by President William Lai (賴清德),” Huang said. “We need to end the division and conflict.”
“The TPP is willing to work with maximum sincerity and goodwill to create a unity government, even if we do not always agree with or even like our partners,” he said.
Huang said that he spoke with former TPP chairman Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) on Saturday night regarding the steps and timeframe for achieving a unity government.
Any such union would be based on shared values rather than just divvying up spots in government, Huang added.
An alliance between the two opposition parties was first floated in 2023 in the run-up to last year’s presidential election, when the TPP and KMT presidential candidates — Ko and New Taipei City Mayor Hou You-yi (侯友宜) — came under pressure to run on a joint ticket. Negotiations ultimately fell apart less than two months before the election, as neither candidate was willing to take the vice presidential slot.
However, the results of the election on Jan. 13 last year suggested that a joint ticket might have been successful, as Lai of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) won with 40.05 percent of the vote, followed by Hou with 33.49 percent and Ko with 26.46 percent.
Despite that failure, the KMT and TPP have joined forces in the legislature, where they hold a combined majority of the 113 seats.
Many of the candidates in the KMT leadership election, including Cheng, have said they support deepening ties between the opposition parties.
Regarding such cooperation in next year’s local elections, Huang on Saturday told reporters that that Cheng’s previous criticism of Ko and her insistence that the KMT must continue to hold the mayoral seat in New Taipei City would not present any obstacles to the TPP and KMT joining forces.
“For a mature politician, there is nothing that you cannot let go of for the sake of Taiwan and its people,” said Huang, who in August indicated that he plans to run for New Taipei City mayor next year.
“We turned the page on that [criticism of Ko] long ago,” he said.
In his remarks, Huang twice referenced coalition talks in Japan’s government by the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, saying it was a “mature expression of democracy.”
A drunk woman was sexually assaulted inside a crowded concourse of Taipei Railway Station on Thursday last week before a foreign tourist notified police, leading to calls for better education on bystander intervention and review of security infrastructure. The man, surnamed Chiu (邱), was taken into custody on charges of sexual assault, taking advantage of the woman’s condition and public indecency. Police discovered that Chiu was a fugitive with prior convictions for vehicle theft. He has been taken into custody and is to complete his unserved six-month sentence, police said. On Thursday last week, Chiu was seen wearing a white
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union yesterday vowed to protest at the EVA Air Marathon on Sunday next week should EVA Airway Corp’s management continue to ignore the union’s petition to change rules on employees’ leave of absence system, after a flight attendant reportedly died after working on a long-haul flight while ill. The case has generated public discussion over whether taking personal or sick leave should affect a worker’s performance review. Several union members yesterday protested at the Legislative Yuan, holding white flowers and placards, while shouting: “Life is priceless; requesting leave is not a crime.” “The union is scheduled to meet with
‘UNITED FRONT’ RHETORIC: China’s TAO also plans to hold weekly, instead of biweekly, news conferences because it wants to control the cross-strait discourse, an expert said China’s plan to expand its single-entry visa-on-arrival service to Taiwanese would be of limited interest to Taiwanese and is a feeble attempt by Chinese administrators to demonstrate that they are doing something, the Mainland Affairs Council said yesterday. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office (TAO) spokesman Chen Binhua (陳斌華) said the program aims to facilitate travel to China for Taiwanese compatriots, regardless of whether they are arriving via direct flights or are entering mainland China through Hong Kong, Macau or other countries, and they would be able to apply for a single-entry visa-on-arrival at all eligible entry points in China. The policy aims
COUNTERMEASURE: Taiwan was to implement controls for 47 tech products bound for South Africa after the latter downgraded and renamed Taipei’s ‘de facto’ offices The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is still reviewing a new agreement proposed by the South African government last month to regulate the status of reciprocal representative offices, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said yesterday. Asked about the latest developments in a year-long controversy over Taiwan’s de facto representative office in South Africa, Lin during a legislative session said that the ministry was consulting with legal experts on the proposed new agreement. While the new proposal offers Taiwan greater flexibility, the ministry does not find it acceptable, Lin said without elaborating. The ministry is still open to resuming retaliatory measures against South
RSS