Vowing to continue reform efforts so the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) will win the 2008 presidential election, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) took over the helm of the party yesterday, while his supporters pushed through proposals to reform the KMT's power structure.
Accepting the party's flag from predecessor Lien Chan (
"Today's society depends on the KMT to monitor the government as a strong opposition party and to maintain peaceful cross-strait relations," Ma said in his inauguration speech to the 1,600 delegates gathered at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hall in Taipei.
PHOTO: FANG PING-CHAO, TAIPEI TIMES
"It is the KMT's mission and my challenge to transform the party into a clean and decent party," he said.
Ma outlined seven reform goals in his speech, including cleaning up the party's asset problems by 2008, pushing for pan-blue unity, expanding the party's base and grassroots connections, and deepening democracy within the party.
Ma praised Lien for the contributions he made to the party as chairman, including allowing a direct election for his successor, and for working to improve cross-strait relations.
He also thanked Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) for running "a gentlemen's race" in the KMT chairmanship election last month.
In his farewell address, Lien thanked party members for their support during his five-year tenure, during which he said he was devoted to reviving the party's soul and spirit. He encouraged his fellow cadres to rejuvenate and reform the party.
"Our popularity among the public had risen to more than 60 percent in a recent survey. I urge all of you to keep the torch passed down by Sun Yat-sen (孫中山), offer voters a different choice, and hopefully win back power in 2008," Lien said.
Many of the delegates, including Lien's son Lien Sheng-wen (
The KMT's "Chairman Ma era" got underway yesterday afternoon when the delegates passed a proposal to allow them to directly elect the party's 31 Central Standing Committee (CSC) members. The motion was carried by more than 856 delegates. The CSC vote will be held today.
The delegates also gave their approval to Ma's nominees for four vice-chairperson posts: incumbents Taichung Mayor Wu Po-hsiung (吳伯雄) and Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤), as well as Lin Cheng-chi (林澄枝) and John Kuan (關中). A total of 952 delegates raised their hands to support the appointments.
A proposal to amend the KMT's constitution to extend the terms of CSC members from one year to two was rejected. Other constitutional amendments that passed included abolishing an article which stipulates that members who are disciplined or expelled cannot be candidates for the Central Standing Committee or party chairman.
The article is generally considered to be aimed at People First Party Chairman James Soong (宋楚瑜), who was expelled by the KMT for running as an independent against Lien in the 2000 presidential election. The amendment was designed to help push for integration of the pan-blue alliance.
As most of the motions put forward by Ma's supporters were passed -- the direct election of CSC members and keeping CSC tenure at one year -- it is believed that the Taipei mayor has enhanced his power within the party.
Today the delegates will elect the 210 members of the party's Central Committee and then elect the 31 CSC members from among those 210 people.
Meanwhile, the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) sent a congratulatory message Ma yesterday, according to a Beijing-based Xinhuanet report.
The message expressed hope that both sides will also oppose Taiwan independence to safeguard peace in the Strait and create a win-win situation for both sides across the Strait.
Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), the CCP's secretary-general, also sent a message to Lien to congratulate him for serving as the KMT's honorary chairman, the report said.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Authorities yesterday elaborated on the rules governing Employment Gold Cards after a US cardholder was barred from entering Taiwan for six years after working without a permit during a 2023 visit. American YouTuber LeLe Farley was barred after already being approved for an Employment Gold Card, he said in a video published on his channel on Saturday. Farley, who has more than 420,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel, was approved for his Gold Card last month, but was told at a check-in counter at the Los Angeles International Airport that he could not enter Taiwan. That was because he previously participated in two
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat
RSS