New Power Party

時代 力量 New Power Party Party of the new force
Party leader	Hsu Yung-ming ( 徐永明 )
founding	January 25, 2015
Headquarters	Taipei
Alignment	Centrism , Liberalism , Taiwanese Regionalism
Colours)	Orange / black
Parliament seats	3/113
Website	www.newpowerparty.tw

The New Power Party ( NPP , Chinese  時代 力量 , Pinyin Shídài Lìliàng , "Party of the New Power") is a political party in the Republic of China in Taiwan . It was founded in 2015.

Party history

Protests by NPP supporters on the occasion of the meeting between President Ma and President of the People's Republic of China Xi on November 4, 2015

The NPP logo on a flag

The party was officially established in Taipei on January 25, 2015 . Prominent initiators and members were or are the musician of the extreme metal band Chthonic and political activist Freddy Lim (founding chairman), the lawyer Lin Feng-jeng, the civil rights activist Hung Tzu-yung and the legal scholar and former chairman Huang Kuo-chang . The party has its roots, among other things, in the so-called Sunflower Movement , a protest movement against the incumbent Kuomintang government, which is mainly supported by students . The protests at the time were triggered by the economic agreements that the Taiwanese government had concluded or wanted to conclude with the People's Republic of China . The demonstrators feared that these agreements would make Taiwan dependent on the People's Republic and gradually lose its sovereignty. The government's intransparent actions were criticized and the protesting students occupied the parliament building of the Legislative Yuan for almost a month .

The opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) was unable to absorb the dissatisfied and eventually they founded their own party, the NPP. Politically, the NPP represents a kind of civil rights program and wants to further expand Taiwan's civil society . She advocates constitutional reform that would abolish two of the five yuan (councilors), namely the control yuan and the audit yuan . The powers of the Legislative Yuan, as the actual parliament, are to be strengthened at the expense of the position of the President. With regard to Taiwan's political status, she advocates complete independence as a separate state.

The NPP also hopes to profit from the dissatisfaction of the voters with the traditional blue - green parties and tries to distinguish itself as a new "third force". In the election for the legislative yuan on January 16, 2016 , it won 6.1 percent of the vote and five of the 113 seats (including three constituency mandates in Taipei , New Taipei and Taichung ). In the parallel presidential election she supported the DPP candidate Tsai Ing-wen . In 2019 there was an internal party crisis due to the dispute over the question of whether the NPP should again support Tsai in the 2020 presidential election . Because of the clashes, Freddy Lim announced that he would be leaving the party, party chairman Chiu Hsien-chih (邱顯智) resigned and MP Hung Tzu-yung (洪慈 庸) also left the party. In addition, the NPP MP Kawlo Iyun Pacidal (高 潞 · 以 用 · 巴 魕 剌) was expelled from the NPP because of alleged misappropriation of state subsidies. As a result, the number of NPP MPs in the Legislative Yuan fell from five to two. In the legislative yuan election on January 11, 2020 , the NPP was able to increase their share of the vote to 7.75 percent and they won three list mandates.

The symbol of the party is the Chinese letter 力 , Lì with the meaning "strength", "strength".

Web links

Commons : New Power Party  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Party website (Chinese)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 'New Power Party' established, hoping to recruit 100,000 supporters. Focus Taiwan News Channel, January 25, 2015, accessed January 9, 2016 . 
2. ^ New party founded. (PDF) In: Taiwan aktuell. taiwanembassy.org, February 28, 2015, archived from the original on January 10, 2016 ; accessed on January 10, 2016 (23rd volume, ISSN 0945-618X). 
3. ^ The New Power Party's Platform. Thinking Taiwan, accessed on January 10, 2016 (English, explanation of the main program items). 
4. ^ Abraham Gerber: Civic groups voice support for 'third force'. Taipei Times, January 8, 2016, accessed January 10, 2016 . 
5. ↑ Nick Aspinwall: Taiwan's New Power Party Faces Crisis After Departure of Heavyweights. The Diplomat, accessed December 20, 2019 .