Taiwan independence hardliners set to form new party to challenge President Tsai Ing-wen
- Veteran campaigner Kuo Pei-hung to unveil Formosa Alliance as new party on Saturday
- Group plans to stand in next year’s presidential and legislative elections and could damage independence-leaning leader’s chances of winning re-election
Hardline supporters of Taiwanese independence are set to form a new political party this week, splitting the so-called pan-green movement in a move that could hit President Tsai Ing-wen’s chances of being re-elected in January.
Yoshi Liu, a spokesman for the proposed party’s organising committee said Kuo Pei-hung, convenor of the Formosa Alliance, would formally announce the establishment of the new party on Saturday.
Liu said the new party would push for the formation of a “Taiwan nation and new constitution to realise the public desire to join the United Nations and counter China’s attempt to annex Taiwan”.
“We are eyeing no less than 10 legislature seats in the January elections and seek to have our own candidate to run for the 2020 presidency,” Liu said.
He said the founders of the new party – which is likely to keep the Formosa Alliance name – believed that the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, which was founded in 1986, was no longer true to its origins and had “degenerated into a one-person party with a group of members fighting for their common interests”.