The Cross-Strait Taiwanese Business People Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Fan Club celebrated its establishment in Taipei yesterday. President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九), who was present at the event as KMT chairman, called on Taiwanese businesspeople working in China to support the KMT, which he said is “on the right side of history.”
Top echelons from the party and KMT candidates attended the celebration, organized by Taiwanese working in China to rally votes and encourage businesspeople to return to participate in the Nov. 29 9-in-1 elections.
KMT vice-chairpersons Wu Den-yih (吳敦義), Tseng Yung-chuan (曾永權) and Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱), KMT Central Review Committee Chairmen Lin Join-sane (林中森) and Chiang Pin-kung (江丙坤) — who are respectively the current Straits Exchange Foundation chairman and the former chairman — KMT Taipei mayoral candidate Sean Lien (連勝文) and Taoyuan County Commissioner John Wu (吳志揚) were present at the event alongside business representatives from the nation’s 22 cities and counties.
Photo: CNA
The founding of a KMT fan club among Taiwanese businesspeople working in China for local elections rather than a national election has no precedent.
The reason might have been hinted at by Ma’s speech at the event, in which he said that in some regions: “We are having a close [election] fight.”
“The KMT is on the right side of history and on the side consistent with the needs of the people,” Ma said, highlighting that the party won the 2008 and 2012 presidential elections with the support of Taiwanese businesspeople and that they could again play a key role this year.
Ma reiterated his view that the suspicion that former Mainland Affairs Council deputy minister Chang Hsien-yao’s (張顯耀) leaked state secrets was only “a small ripple in the strong wave of cross-strait developments.”
Ma also championed his efforts in improving cross-strait relations, emphasizing that the student-led Sunflower movement might have hindered the progress of the cross-strait service trade agreement, but did not prevent China’s Taiwan Affairs Office director Zhang Zhijun (張志軍) from visiting Taiwan.
Berating opposition parties for having what he termed “knee-jerk protests” whenever encountering China, Association of Taiwan Investment Enterprises on the Mainland chairman Kuo Shan-hui (郭山輝) said the service pact “must be passed regardless of its flaws,” as the pact is for the overall “uplift and cannot be opposed for a few blemishes or simply for the sake of opposition.”
Kuo said the 138 associations of Taiwanese businesspeople in China would make lists of names to guide the mobilization of potential voters.
The associations are also to help potential voters obtain group discounts for airplane tickets in order to encourage their return for the election, he added.
NO WORK, CLASS: President William Lai urged people in the eastern, southern and northern parts of the country to be on alert, with Typhoon Kong-rey approaching Typhoon Kong-rey is expected to make landfall on Taiwan’s east coast today, with work and classes canceled nationwide. Packing gusts of nearly 300kph, the storm yesterday intensified into a typhoon and was expected to gain even more strength before hitting Taitung County, the US Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. The storm is forecast to cross Taiwan’s south, enter the Taiwan Strait and head toward China, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The CWA labeled the storm a “strong typhoon,” the most powerful on its scale. Up to 1.2m of rainfall was expected in mountainous areas of eastern Taiwan and destructive winds are likely
KONG-REY: A woman was killed in a vehicle hit by a tree, while 205 people were injured as the storm moved across the nation and entered the Taiwan Strait Typhoon Kong-rey slammed into Taiwan yesterday as one of the biggest storms to hit the nation in decades, whipping up 10m waves, triggering floods and claiming at least one life. Kong-rey made landfall in Taitung County’s Chenggong Township (成功) at 1:40pm, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The typhoon — the first in Taiwan’s history to make landfall after mid-October — was moving north-northwest at 21kph when it hit land, CWA data showed. The fast-moving storm was packing maximum sustained winds of 184kph, with gusts of up to 227kph, CWA data showed. It was the same strength as Typhoon Gaemi, which was the most
Air and rail traffic around Taiwan were disrupted today while power cuts occurred across the country as Typhoon Kong-rey, predicted to make landfall in eastern Taiwan this afternoon, continued edging closer to the country. A total of 241 passenger and cargo flights departing from or arriving at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport were canceled today due to the typhoon, Taoyuan International Airport Corp said. As of 9:30am, 109 inbound flights, 103 outbound flights and 29 cargo flights had been canceled, the company said. Taiwan Railway Corp also canceled all express trains on its Western Trunk Line, Eastern Trunk Line, South-Link Line and attached branches
Typhoon Kong-rey is forecast to make landfall in eastern Taiwan this afternoon and would move out to sea sometime overnight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 9am today, Kong-rey's outer rim was covering most of Taiwan except for the north. The storm's center was 110km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan's southernmost tip, and moving northwest at 28kph. It was carrying maximum sustained winds near its center of 184kph, and gusts of up to 227kph, the CWA said. At a news conference this morning, CWA forecaster Chu Mei-lin (朱美霖) said Kong-rey is moving "extremely fast," and is expected to make landfall between
RSS