Taking their cue from President and KMT chairman Lee Teng-hui's (
KMT heavyweights yesterday also successively stepped into the fray by heaping criticism on Soong, deciding not only to enlarge the scope of punishment to include members of Soong's staff, but also blasting his ambitions as being like that of "Hitler."
The KMT's Evaluation and Discipline Committee yesterday convened a special meeting to finalize the final terms and procedures for Soong's expulsion, which had been expected for months but which had been delayed after the 921 earthquake. Under instructions from KMT Secretary-General John Chang (
"I was asked by ... Chang to work overtime as of early yesterday morning, in an effort to expand the scope of punishment,'' said Chien Wei-chang (
In the light of the evidence pointing to Soong's decision to act against party wishes, Chien said, apart from Soong's expulsion, the KMT was determined to rescind the memberships of Soong's close associates in the party.
The `black list' includes former vice provincial governor Wu Jung-ming (
Expulsion, unlike rescinding party membership, has to be passed by the party's central standing committee, and a return to the party has to wait two years. Rescinding membership, on the other hand, involves only informing the KMT chairman, and a wait of one year before a reinstatement of membership is possible.
"Soong used to say that as a member of the party, he had no choice but to follow its resolu-tions. However, now that the KMT has [already] made its resolution to choose vice president and KMT Vice Chairman Lien Chan (
"Under article 46, clause 1 of the party charter, Soong violated the party's [nomination] resolu-tion, and the members of the evaluation and disciplinary committee have unanimously agreed to expel Soong from the KMT.''
Reacting to the decision, Soong yesterday expressed deep sorrow over the party's resolution to dismiss him and to repeal his close staff members, attacking the motion as being "disconnected with grass-roots opinion."
"The expulsion came as a result of manipulation by a few high-ranking officials. The KMT has already broken away from the voice of the public,'' he said.
"I love my party. Even though KMT has determined to expel me, I have no plan to form any new party to cope with the situation.''
Chien also confirmed that the punishment against Soong's camp would be continued, but that the committee had no timetable for fulfilling that assignment.
"When can we accomplish collecting enough evidence, we will deal with the problem,'' Chien said.
One participant said during the committee meeting, former grand justice Lee Cheng-peng (
However, the recommendation was opposed by Hsieh Wen-I (謝?撣q), the deputy chairman of the committee, saying Soong's case was different than that of Lin Yang-Kang (林洋港) and Hau Pei-tsun (郝柏村), both of whom once served as KMT vice chairman.
"Lin and Hau both contravened party discipline by campaigning to help the New Party in 1996, the first popularly-elected presidential election," Hsieh said.
But this time, Soong himself is running for the presidential seat. The scenario is much more serious than that of Lin and Hau in 1996,'' Hsieh said.
Chen Kang-chin (
Chen strongly criticized Soong as being "draped in nonpartisan dress, but acting like the New party, and yelling the DPP's slogans. His behavior, however, is similar to Hitler's.''
GEARING UP: An invasion would be difficult and would strain China’s forces, but it has conducted large-scale training supporting an invasion scenario, the report said China increased its military pressure on Taiwan last year and took other steps in preparation for a potential invasion, an annual report published by the US Department of Defense on Wednesday showed. “Throughout 2023, Beijing continued to erode longstanding norms in and around Taiwan by employing a range of pressure tactics against Taiwan,” the report said, which is titled “Military and Security Developments Involving the People’s Republic of China (PRC) 2024.” The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) “is preparing for a contingency to unify Taiwan with the PRC by force, if perceived as necessary by Beijing, while simultaneously deterring, delaying or denying
‘LAGGING BEHIND’: The NATO secretary-general called on democratic allies to be ‘clear-eyed’ about Beijing’s military buildup, urging them to boost military spending NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte mentioning China’s bullying of Taiwan and its ambition to reshape the global order has significance during a time when authoritarian states are continuously increasing their aggression, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. In a speech at the Carnegie Europe think tank in Brussels on Thursday, Rutte said Beijing is bullying Taiwan and would start to “nibble” at Taiwan if Russia benefits from a post-invasion peace deal with Ukraine. He called on democratic allies to boost defense investments and also urged NATO members to increase defense spending in the face of growing military threats from Russia
PEACEFUL RESOLUTION: A statement issued following a meeting between Australia and Britain reiterated support for Taiwan and opposition to change in the Taiwan Strait Canada should support the peaceful resolution of Taiwan’s destiny according to the will of Taiwanese, Canadian lawmakers said in a resolution marking the second anniversary of that nation’s Indo-Pacific strategy on Monday. The Canadian House of Commons committee on Canada-Chinese relations made the comment as part of 34 recommendations for the new edition of the strategy, adding that Ottawa should back Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Canada’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, first published in October 2022, emphasized that the region’s security, trade, human rights, democracy and environmental protection would play a crucial role in shaping Canada’s future. The strategy called for Canada to deepen
TECH CONFERENCE: Input from industry and academic experts can contribute to future policymaking across government agencies, President William Lai said Multifunctional service robots could be the next new area in which Taiwan could play a significant role, given its strengths in chip manufacturing and software design, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) chairman and chief executive C.C. Wei (魏哲家) said yesterday. “In the past two months, our customers shared a lot of their future plans with me. Artificial intelligence [AI] and AI applications were the most talked about subjects in our conversation,” Wei said in a speech at the National Science and Technology Conference in Taipei. TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, counts Nvidia Corp, Advanced Micro Devices Inc, Apple Inc and
RSS