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One of the top stories from this past was that two former chairmen of Taiwan’s main opposition party – the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) -- say they will not vie for the chairmanship during party elections in late May. The two former chairmen are Su Tseng-chang and Frank Hsieh. Both released statements on Monday, as the party began the filing process for candidates.
Su announced his decision in a Facebook post on Monday. He said that during his last two years as the head of the DPP, he could tell the public had high hopes for the party. But, he said, he could also see frustration with the party’s inability to live up to expectations. Su said that while support for the DPP had surpassed support for the ruling Kuomintang (KMT), the DPP had been unable to promote Taiwanese values and protect the rights of the people.
Taiwan is set to hold municipal elections in November. Su said that in order for the DPP to keep its focus ahead of the vote, it was important for the party to avoid internal disputes. Therefore, he said, he was taking his hat out of the ring in the chairmanship race.
The absence of Su and Hsieh from the race paves the way for another former DPP chair – Tsai Ing-wen – who was also the party’s first female candidate for president in 2012.
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Also this past week, Google said it’s going to open Asia’s first Google Cloud Platform in Taiwan. Google Taiwan General Manager Chien Lee-feng said Tuesday that the Google Cloud Platform will make information stored in the Cloud Server available to the whole world.
He said the Asian Cloud Platform is actually Google’s Asia information center. He said that would include beginning operations at information centers in Taiwan and Singapore.
The platform in Taiwan includes Google Compute Engine, Google Cloud Storage and Google Cloud SQL and an edition in traditional Chinese characters. Google Cloud Platform Director of Global Sales Daniel Powers said that he hopes the platform will offer flexibility and lower costs to Taiwan businesses.
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And finally this past week, President Ma Ying-jeou met with the United States’ Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief – Gina McCarthy – on Monday. During the meeting, Ma said that the trip was a sign of greater trust between Taipei and Washington.
It was the first time that a US Cabinet-level official has visited Taiwan since the Clinton administration in 2000.