Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je, who is the founder and chair of the Taiwan People’s Party, has found himself in a spat with other TPP politicians after calling party member Lin Shu-hui a “dog” that needed to be “disciplined.” Lin is the director of TPP legislator Lai Hsiang-ling’s office and the chair of the TPP’s central review committee ...
The pan-Green camp saw a victory today, with independent legislator Freddy Lim retaining his seat in Zhongzheng-Wanhua in Taipei District 5, and Lin Ching-yi of the DPP winning the by-election for Taichung District 2, which includes Shalu, Longjing, Dadu, Wuri, and Wufeng. Voting took place in Taichung and Taipei from 8 AM to 4 PM. Vote counting in Zhongzheng-Wanhua was more or less finished by 5 PM, while Lin showed a clear lead in vote counting in Taichung earlier on. Although it was originally expected that results would be known by 7 PM, results were known far earlier...
The DPP currently faces controversy after a criminal case involving high-profile members of its Taipei party branch. The case eventually became larger enough that President Tsai Ing-wen, who is also chair of the DPP, called a meeting of the party’s local chapter heads, calling on the party to take stronger action to avoid elements of the party becoming mixed up with crime...
"White Wolf" Chang An-le, the leader of the China Unification Promotion Party, appeared in court earlier this week to face questioning from authorities. Chang appeared on Tuesday at the Taipei High Prosecutor’s Office for a hearing about comments he recently made on Chinese state-run media outlet China National Radio in an interview...
Comments by Taipei mayor Ko Wen-je at the TPP's first national congress last week are telling about the current political orientation of the party, as well as the challenges it faces going forward. Ko raised eyebrows by calling for a ‘Silent Revolution” in Taiwanese politics at the party congress, a pointed criticism of the Tsai administration indicative of the party’s pan-Blue leanings. At the same time, Ko did not lean as heavily into pan-Blue rhetoric as much as he did during the TPP’s founding one year ago...
The political rhetoric of being “beyond blue and green” has had much staying power in the past four years. Nevertheless, recent events point to how “blue” and “green” political distinctions in Taiwan are here to stay, no matter what politicians may claim otherwise...
Anger broken out in Taiwanese society after physical violence by pan-Blue demonstrators protesting against pension reform yesterday. What has been shocking and angering has been the use of physical violence by anti-pension demonstrators, particularly against journalists and the police. This led to fourteen journalists and 84 police officers being injured, including the beating of journalists and destruction of their equipment, attacks on media vans, and disruptions to the National Taiwan University Children's Hospital by anti-pension demonstrators...
With a large rally against pension reform taking place yesterday on Ketagalan Boulevard in front of the Presidential Office Building that drew hundreds, one observes that KMT continues to leverage on the issue of pension reform as a way to appeal to supporters...
Former president Ma Ying-Jeou of the KMT, who saw the eruption of the Sunflower Movement against his policies aimed at directing the unification of Taiwan and China under his term, continues to come under fire for actions that took place during his presidency. In particular, Ma is currently facing lawsuits regarding the underselling of former state-owned enterprises and former KMT party assets. But this has been complicated by the recent scandal regarding the detention of high-profile New Party members...
