The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday acknowledged that it would include "Taiwan-centered" values in its soon to-be-revised party regulations, but said it would not ditch ultimate unification with China as one of the party's goals.
"The phrase `adhere to a belief that will prioritize Taiwan and benefit the people' will be added [to the party's regulations], but the basic principle of opposing independence for Taiwan remains the same," chairman of the KMT's Culture and Communications Committee Yang Tu (楊渡) said yesterday at party headquarters.
Yang made the remarks in response to a report in yesterday's Chinese-language China Times that said the party would add the term "Taiwan" and delete "unification" in its revised regulations in an attempt to broaden the party's appeal.
The KMT will revise its party regulations on June 24 during the party congress, and the changes will mark the first ever mention of "Taiwan" in the party's regulations.
Yang said the revised regulations would still hold true to the party's spirit by stating that the KMT "has been consistent in implementing democratic reform and pursuing the goals of national prosperity and ultimate unification," and denied that the revision was aimed at paving the way for localization.
Reflecting trends
He argued that the KMT would never deny the existence of the "Republic of China (ROC)," as the party founded the ROC, but added that the KMT was revising the regulations to reflect the trends of the modern era.
"Localization rhetoric does not interfere with our party regulations ? The KMT holds all the people's interests as its priority," he said.
The KMT's presidential candidate, Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), yesterday agreed that the party should prioritize Taiwan and focus on promoting policies that would benefit the people, while denying he participated in the revision's decision-making process.
"In my opinion, we should defend the Republic of China, and at the same time embrace Taiwan," Ma said yesterday after meeting with former chairman Lien Chan (連戰).
The move was hailed by Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平), who said the move would help to boost the party's outlook for the forthcoming elections, but he added that "carrying it out with realistic actions" was more important.
KMT Secretary-General Wu Den-yi (
"There are no conditions for [carrying out] unification or independence at the moment. So our best strategy would be to put aside the issue of unification versus independence and to put issues related to people's interests at the top of the party's list of priorities," Wu said.
Wu said that the proposal was not brought up on the spur of the moment or carried out for the sake of a specific person.
"Instead, the proposal reflects the party's platform -- to defend the Republic of China, to show its love for Taiwan and to benefit the people," Wu said.
Wu said that "localization" shouldn't be something that is monopolized by the DPP.
KMT Legislator Ho Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳) said that the party "should have done something like this a long time ago."
Some KMT lawmakers, however, disapproved of the proposal.
KMT Legislator Shuai Hua-ming (帥化民) said the change would be tantamount to replacing "Chinese" with "Taiwanese" in the party's name, which might not be acceptable to many long-term supporters of the party.
"The removal of "unification" would mean there was no difference between the KMT and the DPP. If we can't distinguish between the KMT and the DPP, how can we persuade the electorate to vote for us?" KMT Legislator Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) said.
She said that the proposal was brought up as a result of "[the party leadership's] dancing to the tune of the DPP" and that this was "unnecessary."
Pan-green politicians were also divided in their responses to the KMT's plan to revise its party charter.
Some feared that the revision would be only superficial.
"The people won't believe that the KMT will act differently if they only change words and not their mindset," Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislative caucus whip Ker Chien-ming (柯建銘) said yesterday when asked by reporters for his thoughts.
DPP chairman Yu Shyi-kun expressed similar views during a press conference at DPP headquarters, saying: "The KMT has not changed inside, it's still a conservative political party that hugs a big China and upholds ultimate unification."
Taiwan Solidarity Union legislative caucus whip Yin Ling-ying (
"It's a good thing, but what's more important is a change of mindset," Yin said. "They [the KMT] need to show real action, otherwise, the change is just superficial."
Vice President Annette Lu (
"It's great ? I hope that we [the two camps] will be less at odds with each other, and that there will not be as much conflict surrounding the independence or unification issue in the 2008 [presidential] election," Lu said when approached by reporters for comment.
DPP presidential candidate Frank Hsieh (
"[The KMT's move] shows that it is getting closer to the DPP's ideas and although some may think the revision is only being made for the purpose of winning elections, I still think we should welcome it," he said.
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday inaugurated the Danjiang Bridge across the Tamsui River in New Taipei City, saying that the structure would be an architectural icon and traffic artery for Taiwan. Feted as a major engineering achievement, the Danjiang Bridge is 920m long, 211m tall at the top of its pylon, and is the longest single-pylon asymmetric cable-stayed bridge in the world, the government’s Web site for the structure said. It was designed by late Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid. The structure, with a maximum deck of 70m, accommodates road and light rail traffic, and affords a 200m navigation channel for boats,
PRECISION STRIKES: The most significant reason to deploy HIMARS to outlying islands is to establish a ‘dead zone’ that the PLA would not dare enter, a source said A High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) would be deployed to Penghu County and Dongyin Island (東引) in Lienchiang County (Matsu) to force the Chinese military to retreat at least 100km from the coastline, a military source said yesterday. Taiwan has been procuring HIMARS and Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) from the US in batches. Once all batches have been delivered, Taiwan would possess 111 HIMARS units and 504 ATACMS, which have a range of 300km. Considering that “offense is the best defense,” the military plans to forward-deploy the systems to outlying islands such as Penghu and Dongyin so that
‘CLEAR MESSAGE’: The bill would set up an interagency ‘tiger team’ to review sanctions tools and other economic options to help deter any Chinese aggression toward Taiwan US Representative Young Kim has introduced a bill to deter Chinese aggression against Taiwan, calling for an interagency “tiger team” to preplan coordinated sanctions and economic measures in response to possible Chinese military or political action against Taiwan. “[Chinese President] Xi Jinping [習近平] has directed the People’s Liberation Army to be ready to invade Taiwan by 2027. China has a plan. America should have one too,” Kim said in a news release on Thursday last week. She introduced the “Deter PRC [People’s Republic of China] aggression against Taiwan act” to “ensure the US has a coordinated sanctions strategy ready should
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest foundry service provider, yesterday said that global semiconductor revenue is projected to hit US$1.5 trillion in 2030, after the figure exceeds US$1 trillion this year, as artificial intelligence (AI) demand boosts consumption of token and compute power. “We are still at the beginning of the AI revolution, but we already see a significant impact across the whole semiconductor ecosystem,” TSMC deputy cochief operating officer Kevin Zhang (張曉強) said at the company’s annual technology symposium in Hsinchu City. “It is fair to say that in the past decade, smartphones and other mobile devices were
RSS