Several Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) members yesterday ridiculed the party’s list of legislator-at-large nominees, which critics described as the worst lineup in history.
Prior to a meeting of the KMT’s Central Standing Committee yesterday afternoon, committee member Yao Chiang-lin (姚江臨) told reporters that while he dared not criticize the list as the worst in history, its rankings were undeniably unfair to grassroots workers.
“The Social Democratic Party gave its labor representative the top spot on its legislator-at-large list, while the Democratic Progressive Party put its in 14th place. However, the KMT placed Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions director-general Chuang Chueh-an (莊爵安) 19th,” Yao said.
Photo: CNA
Yao said workers and farmers were the reasons the KMT was defeated by the Chinese Communist Party in the Chinese Civil War, forcing it out of China in 1949, and why it lost the 2000 presidential election.
The KMT has not learned its lesson and still disregards grassroots workers, Yao said, adding that the list included too many unfamiliar names and too few people who have made contributions to the party.
Central Standing Committee member Hou Tsai-feng (侯彩鳳) gave the list a score of 60 percent, saying that although the KMT leadership moved Chuang from 22nd spot to 19th, he was still excluded from the “safe list.”
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
“If the nominees were selected for the purpose of boosting the KMT’s election prospects in the 2018 mayoral and county commissioner elections, then why are so many of them not running for a regional seat in the legislature?” Hou said, referring to Chu’s plan to recruit candidates from the list for the local elections in 2018 after they have accumulated experience during the first two years of their four-year legislative term.
“I beg of you, higher echelons of the KMT: Please give the party a break,” Hou added.
Committee member Tseng Wen-pei (曾文培) said the KMT leadership should explain its criteria for choosing the nominees, as many of them might serve as the party’s “small Cabinet” in the legislature should it lose power next year.
“The KMT’s 211-seat Central Standing Committee is to vote on each of the nominees tomorrow [today]. No one has ever been removed from the list by the committee, but I am not so sure about that this time,” Tseng said.
According to KMT regulations, nominees who receive votes of disapproval from more than half of the committee members attending a meeting would see their nomination annulled.
The KMT’s Huang Fu-hsing (黃復興) military veterans’ branch issued a press release yesterday saying it regrets the party’s decision to place Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng (王金平) at the top of the list.
“While the decision was made out of respect for the speaker and due to some political considerations, it nevertheless failed people’s expectation for fundamental reform of the legislature,” it said.
Legislative Deputy Speaker Hung Hsiu-chu (洪秀柱) gave a score of 100 when asked by reporters to grade the legislator-at-large list.
Asked if she was serious, Hung said: “Who still means what they say nowadays?”
Lee Kuang-yi (李光儀), a journalist with the Chinese-language United Daily Evening News, traditionally a pan-blue-leaning newspaper, called the list the “lamest ever in history.”
“There is nothing refreshing or new, only traces of wrangling between different KMT factions and pork-barrel politics. I believe no pan-blue supporter would be happy with the list,” Lee said in an editorial on Thursday.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS