Politics

Governing more important than presidency: Tsai

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 20, 2015
By: Chen Hui-ping and Lee Hsin-fang / Staff reporters

How the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) would govern if it wins the presidential

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen, right front, yesterday laughs after giving a speech at the party’s national congress in Taoyuan, as Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu, with green scarf, looks on. Photo: Pichi Chuang, Reuters

election in January — not just winning the election — is what is truly important for the party, DPP Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday told its national congress.

More than 500 representatives attended the event in Taoyuan, including former vice president Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) and former party chairmen Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌), Frank Hsieh (謝長廷), Yu Shyi-kun and Yao Chia-wen (姚嘉文).

Kaohsiung Mayor Chen Chu (陳菊) and 11 of the party’s other mayors and county commissioners also attended.

However, Tainan Mayor William Lai (賴清德), whose municipality is battling a major outbreak of dengue fever, did not attend. [FULL STORY]

Freezing pro-independence platform would help DPP with China: scholars

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-19
By: Lo Yin-chung and Staff Reporter

If Taiwan’s Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) passes a proposal to freeze its platform pursuing Taiwan’s independence, it will be a step forward in its relations with Beijing, Chinese scholars said.

The DPP has included a proposal to freeze the pro-independence platform on the agenda of its national congress in Taoyuan on Sept. 19, after the issue sparked a debate during last year’s party congress.

Liu Guoshen, director of the Taiwan Research Institute of China’s Xiamen University, said that if the proposal were passed by the DPP under chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen, who is running for president in the 2016 elections, it would reduce obstacles hindering the party’s relations with the Communist Party of China (CPC).

According to Liu, the DPP does not understand Beijing’s way of thinking and is unable to end the stalemate in its relations with the CPC. Beijing would offer a formal positive response were the DPP willing to freeze its pro-independence platform, which would be a landmark move, Liu said. If the DPP chooses to do nothing, however, and plans to get away with simply seeking to maintain the status quo across the Taiwan Strait, Beijing may come under pressure at home to discontinue negotiations with Taiwanese officials and semi-official agencies, Liu added. [FULL STORY]

DPP publicizes finances, Tsai promises transparency

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 18, 2015
By: Su Feng-ho and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文)

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) spokesman Wang Ming-sheng unveils a new video to celebrate the 29th anniversary of the founding of the DPP at a news conference held at the party’s headquarters in Taipei yesterday. Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times

campaign office yesterday publicized its campaign finances, vowing to keep all sources of its contributions transparent and reject big corporate donors.

Tsai’s campaign chief executive officer Lin Hsi-yao (林錫耀) told a news conference in Taipei that the campaign does not accept contributions from conglomerates’ donors, adding that Tsai’s campaign has so far received NT$75 million (US$2.3 million) in donations, of which NT$48 million came from small contributions.

Lin said that the office has recorded and made available all contributions prior to last month to keep Tsai’s promise of transparency, and that the 18 local campaign offices nationwide would regularly update information about donations.

Lin said Tsai’s last presidential campaign in 2012 would have had to “hang up its cooking pots” if not for the piggy-bank initiative, which he said raised NT$ 200 million — referring to piggy banks the campaign doled out to individual supporters to collect contributions. [FULL STORY]

Tsai vows to issue apology to Aborigines

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 16, 2015
By: Chen Hui-ping and Jonathan Chin / Staff reporter, with staff writer

Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday said that, if elected in January’s presidential election, she would issue an official apology to the Aborigines on behalf of the government.

She added that she would also push forward reforms of Aboriginal policies on the basis of “equality, dignity and autonomy.”

Tsai, who is one-quarter Payuan on her grandmother’s side, criticized the government for having “failed to take into account the plight of urban Aborigines,” quoting the lyrics of Aboriginal singer Panai’s song Wandering as a commentary on Aboriginal policies.

“I bid my farewells to my home by the mountain, holding back the tears,” she said. [FULL STORY]

Tough choices await Beijing after Taiwan’s election: US expert

Want China Times
Date: 2015-09-15
By: CNA and Staff Reporter

The real test of cross-strait relations will begin after Taiwan’s 2016 presidential election if the new government does not accept the 1992 Consensus, an American expert said Monday.

David Brown, an adjunct professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Paul H Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, said if Tsai Ing-wen of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party is elected — as expected — Beijing will be confronted with many difficult choices.

One of them will be whether to stick with the policy of peaceful development or shift to a military-focused coercion approach, Brown said during a discussion on “Taiwan’s 2016 Elections and the United States” held by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a major think tank in Washington DC.

“I don’t know the answer to that question, in part because I don’t know I fully understand the man that is going to make the decision, which is Xi Jinping,” Brown said. [FULL STORY]

Tsai promises apology and autonomy to indigenous peoples

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-09-15
By: Matthew Strong, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Democratic Progressive Party Chairwoman Tsai Ing-wen on

Tsai promises autonomy to indigenous peoples. Central News Agency (2015-09-15 15:06:40)

Tuesday promised a first step toward autonomy and a government apology to indigenous peoples if she wins the presidential election.

At the presentation of two DPP candidates for legislative seats representing the indigenous population, she said that she would offer the apology and that during her first term, she would help the cause of autonomy take a huge first step forward.

The practice of autonomous rule would include own finances, land rights and an organization structure, the opposition leader said. Taiwan needed to share responsibility for the many sacrifices the indigenous population bore over the centuries they lived on the island as its original inhabitants, according to Tsai. [FULL STORY]

Shih Ming-te fails to meet threshold, ends candidacy

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 16, 2015
By: Abraham Gerber / Staff reporter

Veteran activist Shih Ming-te (施明德) yesterday announced it would be impossible for him

Shih Ming-te wipes his eyes with a handkerchief yesterday as he announced that he would not stand in the presidential race. Shih failed to collect the 300,000 signatures required to stand. Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times

to reach the signature petition threshold necessary to be placed on the ballot as an independent presidential candidate, effectively ending his candidacy.

“After working hard for more than three months, I have to concede that there is no way I can get over the threshold through legitimate means,” Shih said. “I poured my heart and soul into achieving the 300,000-signature threshold. I apologize to everyone who was willing to provide me with copies of their national identification cards to support me — I have let you all down.”

The Central Election Commission requires that copies of national identification cards be provided for each signatory of a petition drive.

An emotional Shih choked up as he called on the remaining presidential hopefuls to “take into consideration” his campaign pledges to maintain the cross-strait “status quo,” move toward a Cabinet system of government and redistribute wealth, reiterating his belief that reconciliation between the pan-blue and pan-green political camps is the only way for the nation to move forward. [FULL STORY]

UDN faces accusation from Glaser over China policy

Taiwan News
Date: 2015-09-14
By: Jocylin FC, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Taiwan’s newspaper, United Daily News (UDN) faces accusation from China policy and security policy expert Bonnie Glaser for their deliberately misleading headline on the “1992 consensus”. UDN published an article on September 11 stating that Glaser was urging Democratic Progressive Party presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen to accept the ostensible “1992 consensus” and “one China policy”.

Glaser attended a panel discussion at a conference called “Cross-Strait Series: The Upcoming Taiwanese Elections” which is sponsored by the Atlantic Council on September 9. At the conference, she said in order to achieve the preservation of cross-strait stability, Chinese president Xi Jinping might say this to US President Barack Obama, “There must be acceptance by Taiwan’s next president of the 1992 consensus and more importantly, one China.”

However, the headlines in UDN presented her speech incorrectly and this article has been used by other Taiwanese media to question both parties’ presidential candidates. Glaser, a senior adviser for Asia at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said that UDN’s editors in Taipei “deliberately created a headline to mislead readers to think that I personally urged Tsai Ing-wen to accept the 1992 consensus and one China.” [FULL STORY]

DPP produces ‘souvenir’ piggy banks to meet demand

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 15, 2015
By: Loa Iok-sin and Su Fang-ho / Staff reporters

The Democratic Progressive Party’s (DPP) latest piggy bank campaign has proven

A woman holds up a tray of piggy banks that is to be used for Democratic Progressive Party campaign donations. Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times

successful, perhaps just not exactly the way it planned.

The party has been giving out small piggy banks to its supporters, encouraging them to fill the banks and return them to the party as a form of small-scale fundraising.

However, DPP lawmakers’ offices said that party headquarters could not keep up with supporters’ demand for the banks, as many were being kept as souvenirs, so the party has had to produce a “souvenir version” that supporters can keep after turning in the original ones.

The “souvenir version” piggy banks, which were released yesterday, have DPP presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) signature on them, DPP spokesperson Cheng Yun-peng (鄭運鵬) told a news conference in Taipei.

The DPP first used piggy banks as a fundraising strategy in 2011 as part of Tsai’s campaign for the 2012 presidential election, after three children had donated the contents of their piggy banks to her campaign. [FULL STORY]

KMT announces fall legislative goals

SOLIDARITY:The party’s legislators called on KMT heavyweights to work together, as failure to do so, especially publicly, would put the results of next year’s elections at risk

Taipei Times
Date: Sep 15, 2015
By: Jake Chung / Staff writer, with CNA

The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) government will prioritize passage of a cross-strait

Senior members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) President Ma Ying-jeou, KMT Chairman Eric Chu, Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng and KMT presidential candidate Hung Hsiu-chu, left to right, listen to comments from a member during a forum held by the KMT’s Policy Committee to discuss the Legislature’s operations in Taipei yesterday. Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times

agreement on double taxation avoidance as well as bills on the budget, government restructuring and an all-volunteer military in the fall legislative session, Premier Mao Chi-kuo (毛治國) said yesterday.

Mao said the Cabinet would also push a special budget bill to finance a river basin management plan, an amendment to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to raise wages for their employees and legislation promoting industrial innovation.

He listed the government’s priorities at a forum held by the KMT’s Policy Committee to discuss the legislature’s operations and coordination with the government before the new session begins today.

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) and Deputy Legislative Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), who is the party’s presidential candidate, were all present at the forum. [FULL STORY]

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